Another Tangled Web
by ordinaryguy2
Summary: The continuing saga regarding what happened to the missing Klingons. This time Stargate: Atlantis is added to the mix. Written by Brock Joyner with my permission.
1. Chapter 1

ANOTHER TANGLED WEB

By Brock Joyner

In answer to the challenge of the drunken Klingons lost through space and time in A TANGLED WEB Part 7 Chapter 2. It is also a prequel to the return of two Klingons returned by the Men in Black in A TANGLED WEB Part 7 Chapter 8. I've known Brock for years and this is his first fanfiction story. Praise is great. Helpful criticism is always welcome.

Still more Klingons out there if anyone is interested.

**Abandoned subway tunnels New York City, New York**

"Kay!" James Edwards, one time member of the NYPD, now known as agent J in an elite group of highly trained, ultra secret organization known as the men in black, who's job was to monitor alien activity on earth, investigate any threat to earth, and no matter the danger, neutralize any threat that presents itself. And right now agent J was running for his life, and screaming like a little girl, toward his partner, agent K.

"Kay! Get these things off me! Ow!!" shouted J as he drew near his partner.

"Settle down slick. I'll take it from here," Agent K said as he calmly strode up to his junior partner. Addressing one of the seven crab-like beings that had a hold of J at various places on his body, "Could you let go of my trainee now? I think he's learned his lesson."

The rocky crustacean looked at K and responded with a series of clicks and whirrs, but otherwise didn't move.

"Alright, could you let go of my trainee, please?"

Another few clicks from the crustacean

"You heard him, Slick, apologize to them."

"Apologize for wha... ow! ok, ok, ok! I'm sorry!"

Another few clicks and the crabs dislodged themselves from J's body and skittered back down the tunnel that J had come running from a few minutes earlier. J was about to speak when K cut him off.

How many times do I have to tell you, never raise your voice around a Mercuron?

"But you said we were going to talk to the Neptunation enclave."

"And Neptunations like to keep Mercurons as pets."

"And when were you going to share this with me?"

"Nothing like life experience to keep you on your toes, slugger," K said as they both started walking down the tunnel.

**Neptunation enclave**

J and K both stood in the room J had just vacated minutes earlier. Along the wall, hundreds of Mercurons eyed the Men in Black wearily. In the center of the room sat five Neptunations, all human looking, and all dressed like the Gordans fisherman, J thought.

"...so you've asked to meet. What's the problem?" K asked in his usual monotone

voice.

"We have... opponents? No,... enemies, yes, that's it, new enemies that take our land and eat our people."

"Excuse me, but did he just say EAT?" asked J. "As in fish sticks?"

K gave J an annoyed look, "You mean ingest your people?"

"Ingest, no," replied the elder, looking momentarily confused, then responded, "absorbed is word I think."

K suddenly got very serious. "This thing wouldn't happen to be a large ball of plasma that increases in size every time it absorbs something, would it?" K thought back to that infamous event in the '60s.

"No, not like that, like men."

K relaxed a bit.

"Men with machine parts, blast poor Mercurons to bits."

"With what?" K asked. Mercuron shells were bulletproof and could resist a type 1 energy

discharge.

"Unknown how," responded the elder. "Patrols don't return, just see Mercuron mess on walls."

"Lets go check it out, kid."


	2. Chapter 2

**Underground tunnels, New York **

MiB agents J and K had gone maybe 200 yards down the tunnel before J broke the all too brief silence.

"Ok, K. Just where do you get off callin' me a trainee, huh? And what were those crabs-the ones with the anger management problems?"

"Already told you slick. Murcurons. The most anal retentive creature in the galaxy for personal cleanliness. That's why the Neptunations like to keep them around to clean those hard to reach areas around their shells."

"So they a cross between Ryan Seacrest and Cujo."

"That about sums it up, slick," K responded.

"Ok, and what about callin' me a 'trainee', K? I mean, I don't know if you heard, but while you were off playing Mr. Postman, I ran MIB, I mean RAN IT, K. I was top dog,  
head honcho, and agent of the year."

"And neuralized every one of your partners. Yes, I heard," K responded.

"Hey, you can't blame me for lax recruiting, I mean, there was this one guy, I don't know WHERE they got him from... aw man, now look at that, and I just got these shoes!" Agent J removed his shoe from the puddle of goo and shell that he had stepped in.

"Mucuron. We must be close," K said as he drew his pistol. J fumbled around his pocket, until he found his reluctant sidearm, and then began following K down the tunnel, while trying to scrape the residual goo from his shoe.

"Quietly." K emphasized to his partner.

"Easy for you to say, you don't have alien crab guts all over your shoes," muttered J under his breath.

After another hundred yards, the tunnel opened up into a large cavern. Light poured in from a few cracks here and there dimly illuminating the room. It looked to have once been a rail transfer yard, with various train cars of different eras in various states of disrepair. Near one of the lights, a large fire was starting to burnout. Close to the fire, various tents and tarps and boxes had been set up, making it look as if many people had lived there.

But the most impressive sight wasn't the trains or the village, it was what the people were doing to the trains. K counted about forty people, some were human, others were aliens of various races, all were identical black clothing, all with various metallic components over eyes, arms, and torsos, all taking the trains apart and carrying the components to a double cylinder like object.

What they were doing with it, K couldn't tell, due to the six tables that obstructed his view. On each one was a person, with a drone moving back and forth between the tables, doing various operations on people, replacing an eye, adding a chest plate, and so on. One of the victims K noticed by its tall, sleek form and its four arms, was a Goran.

"What is going on here?" J asked, with a mix of awe and horror.

"Breaking intergalactic rule 154-2, article seven." K responded.

"Yeah? Well, let's go do our thing," J said, getting ready to step forward.

Just then, a bright orange light flashed in front of the Men in Black, and an instant later, four humanoids fell to the ground hard. All were wearing some type of body armor, and acting drunk. Nevertheless, they managed to jump to their feet and charge as one, screaming a fierce battle cry while attacked the nearest drone.

K watched impassively as the four armored humanoids, all of which had a bony protrusion on their foreheads, rip the drone apart with their bear hands.

As one, K watched, the drones all turned to face the new threat. Two of the warriors were dropped almost instantly by some type of energy bolt from two of the drones while a third took the opportunity to double over and vomit. "Too much bloodwine," the warrior announced as he stood back up, only to find his only remaining ally had left him behind and charged the borg. The warrior managed to take down one or two drones before K saw him being stuck with a pair of tubes coming out one drones' hand.

Klang could still feel the shame that his body had failed him at a crucial time. But when he saw Durge being stuck by the Borg, his shame turned to rage. He was about to charge when he felt a hand on his shoulder. Reflexively, he turned around and was about to strike when he saw two men in black suits.

The older man spoke, "We need to leave, now."

Klang, shocked but not surprised, responded, "Humans. A Klingon warrior does NOT retreat!!"

J, being reminded of an old sergeant he once served under and got an idea. "Don't think of it as retreating, we just know some other guys that would wanna get in on this, but we need you and your buddies to...to...to help convince them it's a... a worthy challenge." 

Klang pondered this for a moment, "spoken like a Klingon! I am Klang, son Khol, of the house of Khol."

"Nice to meet you, I'm J and this is K. Now let's get your buddies and go!"


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

**Written by Brock Joyner**

**TIME: third year of the Atlantis expedition, about a week after '**_**McKay and Mrs. Miller**_**'.**

Dr. Elizabeth Wier was sitting in her office, going over various weekly reports, when she happened to look up, and saw Dr. Rodney McKay practically running towards her office, with Dr. Zalenka close behind.

_Oh this should be fun_, Dr. Wier thought sarcastically to herself.

"Elizabeth, are you busy? No, of course your not." said Rodney as he invited himself into her office, "You're not going to believe this, but I found a solution to all our problems."

_Better clear my schedule_, Elizabeth thought, _it's going to be one of THOSE days._

**About half an hour later**

Lt. Col. John Sheppard was having a great day. He had gotten up, went on his morning run, hit a bucket of golf balls off the pier, and even the food in the mess hall was good for a change.

John was just traveling to his sparring appointment with Teyla, when the call came in.

"John?" it was Dr. Wier.

John touched his earpiece. "Go ahead, Elizabeth."

I need you in the conference room in fifteen minutes. Rodney's come up with something and I'd like your input."

"Do you need me? I was about to go sparring with Teyla, and I gott tell ya, doc, I really think I gotta shot at her this time."

Dr. Wier tried, but failed, to suppress a laugh, "You can try to beat up Teyla later; right now I need you to help me keep Rodney from doing anything foolish."

With a mock sigh of defeat John replied, "Okay, okay, I'm on my way."

John was walking toward the command area, when he ran into Teyla. He was about to explain why she couldn't throw him around the sparring mat like a rag doll, but she held up her hand and smiled warmly at him.

"It is alright, John. Elizabeth has already informed me of the meeting and has invited me to participate."

"She did, did she?" John replied. While it was not unusual for Telya to attend most meetings, if nothing else, so she could represent Ethosean interests, Dr. Wier didn't usually call Teyla for technical briefings. "Did she happen to tell you what this was all about?" John asked as they began walking together.

"She did not. She only mentioned that Dr. McKay had an idea and that my people may be able to help."

"Okaaay." This is going to get weird, John thought to himself.

**In the situation room**

"As you all know," McKay began, as he started the briefing, "that due to unforeseen circumstances, we have nearly depleted our zed-p-m. I found a way that we may be able to 'recharge' it. Now, when the Durandan home system exploded, it created a HUGE amount of energy..."

"Which you helped facilitate," John retorted, smiling snidely at Rodney.

"…Yes, yes thank you for reminding everyone. Look, the point is that most of that energy is in subspace. Now because of the experiment we conducted last week-"

"You mean the one where you almost destroyed a parallel universe while trying to recreate the Arcturis project... which is the REASON WHY the Durandan system was destroyed in the first place?" John interrupted again, smiling even more.

"Look, that was NOT my fault! I wasn't the only one working on that project! And it was SUPOSED to connect with an UNINHABITED universe. That was just... bad luck..." Rodney was starting to get flushed, embarrassed and irritated.

John smiled to himself. _My work here is done_, John thought amusingly, _for now_.

"Please continue," Dr. Wier said to Rodney, giving John an admonishing look that was only half serious.

"THANK you," said Rodney. "As I was saying, the experiment we were working on last week when the gateway was closed, it set up a type of subspace reversion field - in essence a magnet for subspace energy. So all this energy is coming to these coordinates-" Rodney pointed to a highlighted area on the monitor behind him. It showed a quarter of the planet they were on - called Atlantia for no other reason that Atlantis base was stationed on there, and that the Ancient records left no mention of what THEY called the planet - and a large area of distortion about 200 miles from the planets' surface. "..and should be here in about three weeks or so."

"Will this cause us any problems?" Dr. Wier asked, looking slightly apprehensive.

"No, no, no...well, it shouldn't...it might cause some SLIGHT interference with subspace communications, and the Deadalus probably shouldn't go too near the area while in hyperspace.."

"Will it affect the city's' long-range sensors?" asked John.

"Not when we're done with them, no."

"Wait a minute. What do you mean, 'when we're done with them'?"

"What Rodney means, and the reason I asked for you here," Elizabeth interjected, "is because Rodney's idea-"

"My idea," Rodney interrupted, "is to collect the energy, convert it into a specific energy wave form, and transfer it into the three mostly-depleted zed p m's we have and hopefully cause them to replenish and recharge."

"That sounds great," John stated, "but what does this have to do with the cities long range sensors?"

"Ah, well, in order to get the energy from space, we need a collector. And to convert the energy to a compatible form, we need something that can direct large amounts of energy, while converting it simultaneously. The long range sensor array, after some slight modifying, can do both, and can do it fast."

"So let me get this straight," John said, not looking convinced, "the energy storm, is just that, a storm; and the long range sensor array is the lightning rod, and the zpm room is the flux capacitor. You want to treat our city like a Delorian?"

"Essentially, yes." Rodney responded.

"As I recall, that didn't work out well for the car in the movie." John shot back.

"They made it back home didn't they?" Rodney said defensively.

"I was referring to the whole Back To The Future trilogy!"

"Yes, yes, that's' true, but the long range sensor array is much more advanced than a metal hook sticking out the backside of a car."

John couldn't argue with that, even though he wanted to. Score one for McKay. "Ok, so what happens if you burn out the sensor array, or it interferes with its normal function?"

"We won't have to worry about overloading it," Rodney said quickly, "because the city already has safeguards in place to prevent that. Although… we will have to shut down the array's primary function to properly channel."

"YOU WANNA DO WHAT! Elizabeth, you can't be serious!" John was standing on his feet now, "You want to shut down this city's first line of defense? Without them we'll be blind AND helpless!"

"Oh relax," Rodney said dismissively. "While the array is up and running we can track ships while they are still weeks away, even at maximum speeds. We will have the sensors down for maybe a day or two at most. I mean, think of it- THREE fully operational zed p m's! Think of what we could do! We could even fly the city if we wanted to!"

"And if you screw up in your "calculations" AGAIN, then we could permanently damage our only first warning system!"

John had to admit, silently, that he liked the idea of running Atlantis on full power. No more hunting for zpm's, no more power rationing, and unlimited shields. He finally caved in after debating the subject with both McKay and Elizabeth for another five minutes.

"I still wish we could wait until the Deadalus gets back." John said, dejectedly.

"Yes, but by then the storm will have dissipated. We have a very narrow window. Which is where you come in, Teyla."

Rodney finished outlying his plan. Teyla agreed to speak to her people, but was confident they would agree. The Ethosians would assist a team of techs to run power cables from the sensor arrays' buffer to the zpm room. Dr. Zelinka would ensure the connections were correct on both sides, while Rodney interfaced with the city to recalibrate the sensor array. Teyla and Lt. Col. Sheppard, with the help of Ronan would coordinate ferrying the Ethosions back and forth between the city and the mainland.

**Meanwhile, in another part of the Pegasus galaxy..**

The Wraith queen was both impressed and repulsed at what her scientists had done to her cruiser. When they had first approached her with the idea, she almost had them sent to storage, to be fed upon later. But one of the scientists had thought quickly and had given the queen the answers she needed. They would use the very technology of the Atlanteans against them. That hated cloaking technology that had taken her and her people by surprise time and time again, and had nearly cost her people the war. She knew that Atlantis still existed. That explosion that her sisters had seen envelope Atlantis over a year ago must have been a deception. And humans, while devious, were not suicidal. So when her scientist brought her a fully functioning stealth field generator from an Atlantian ship damaged during the war, recently recovered from a culled world, and when the scientist described how they may be able to adapt it to work on her cruiser, thus able to sneak up on the Atlantians and confirm their continued existence, maybe even take Atlantis by surprise and secure a way to Earth, she decided to let them live. For now.

The chief scientist stood before his queen, respectfully waiting for her to acknowledge him. The queen made him stand there for a few minutes, better to remind them all just where the power was, before she acknowledged him.

"What is it?" She demanded.

"My queen. We have completed our work. We await your command."

"Good," She purred, "Are the fighters on station?"

"Yes, they are on station outside the field and are eager to report the results."

"Excellent. Begin your test."

"Yes, my queen." The scientist bowed reverently before speaking to his colleague via intercom. "Begin'"

There were a few moments of silence before the comm. chirped again. This time is was the fighter pilot, who felt honored speaking to his queen, "It works."

"You have satisfied me," The queen said to the scientist. She then punched up the comm. to the bridge on her throne, "recall the pilot, and make best speed to Atlantis without being detected. How long will this take?"

"We will arrive in orbit around the planet in three weeks."

_Good_, the queen thought, three weeks and she could confirm Atlantis still existed, and finally achieve access to Earth, where her and her sisters would have a feast not like anything she had known in over ten thousand years...

**Author's note:** _This first part of this story deals with the show Stargate: Atlantis, and for those unfamiliar with the series, here's some important information, but for more info, please visit Thank you and enjoy! _

_Atlantis: a city-sized intergalactic spaceship created by a race known as "the ancients". These same ancients are responsible for a stable network of wormholes known as "stargates" in both the Milky Way and Pegasus galaxies, and later "ascended" into a higher form of life similar to the Q, or were exterminated by the Wraith, the now dominant lifeform in the Pegasus galaxy._

_Z.P.M: Zero Point Module. The ancients' preferred power source for everything from Atlantis to warships. It draws vacuum energy from a contained artificial microverse._

_Project Arcturas: (episode: trinity) an attempt by the ancients to collect vacuum energy, similar to a ZPM, from their own universe. The project ended in disaster, resulting in the loss of all life on the Durandan homeworld. Ten thousand years later Dr. Rodney Mckay tried to revive the project, with similar results._

_Time setting: the third year of the Atlantis expedition, one week after the episode "Mckay and Mrs. Miller"._


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

**Written by Brock Joyner**

Work on the long range sensor array was proceeding faster than anticipated. Once Teyla explained to her people that with three zpm's Atlantis could extend its shields all the way to the mainland, which meant no more looking to the sky in fear, and no more hurried evacuations to Atlantis every time the Earthers got scared of something. The Ethosians liked that. A LOT. The Ethosians, in addition to being skilled warriors and hunters, and farmers, were very hard workers. Although the Ethosians were not anywhere near as technically proficient as the Earthers, they made up for it in hard work. The cables were all run and connected in the appropriate places nearly three days early, which gave Drs. Zalenka and McKay that much extra time to run tests and ensure that nothing would blow up. Even Lt. Col. Sheppard had to admit that he was impressed at the thoroughness of the two Dr.s since there was no enemy, and all the Ethosians were too tired to spar, Ronan was bored. Very bored.

"Are you done yet?" John said, trying to get under Rodney's skin. It worked.

"It's not like a VCR; you can't just plug in a few wires, set the clock, and put in your favorite movie. It's a very delicate process, and... What am I doing talking to you?!?! You wouldn't understand." Rodney turned his back on Sheppard, who in turn, decided to go talk to Dr. Wier.

"This sucks." John said as he walked up to Wier.

"John, we've been over this. It'll only be for a few days."

"Oh, It's not that, well…I still don't like it but it's not that."

Elizabeth gave John a quizzical look. "What is it, then?"

"Well, It's all this tech stuff. There's no mission to plan, no bad guys to blow up. I feel left out."

Elizabeth gave John a sympathetic look and patted him on the shoulder, "Well, you know Rodney. With your 'talent' for Ancient technology, I'm sure Rodney'll want to use you as much as possible. If I were you, I'd get as much rest as you can, you're gonna need it."

"You're the doc." John quipped.

**Later**

"Okay...and...that...should…about...do it. Okay, I think we're just about ready," Rodney stated triumphantly.

"Zalenka?" John asked, looking for confirmation.

Dr. Raddic Zalenka looked between his notebook computer and the Ancient computer he was interfacing with. "Yes. Yes, ve are ready."

"All right. Go ahead when you're ready," Dr. Wier said, giving a nod of approval to McKay.

"Ok. And in three...two…one."

Rodney initiated the array. "Readings are normal, power input holding steady at 20 percent."

"Conduits are holding...ve have positive charge on zpm number one." Raddic reported, bordering on excitement.

"Everything looks ok. Raddic, initiate charge on zed p ms two and three." Rodney stated, looking back and forth between readouts.

"Rodney, are you sure?" Raddic asked.

"Yes, yes, yes, all readouts are holding steady, it'll be ok." Rodney said dismissively.

Raddic just shrugged and made the adjustments. After a few moments, he reported, "Positive charging on zpms two and three. All reports are in the green."

After a few more moments, Rodney announced, "Everything looks normal, increasing power input to 50 percent."

That got a reaction out of Dr. Zalenka, "Rodney, are you sure? We need to run more tests..."

Without even looking up or otherwise acknowledging Raddic, Rodney said, "Yeah, yeah, yeah. Go run your tests. I'm sure everything will be alright."

"Rodney..." John warned.

"It's alright, bringing input up to 75 percent."

"Rodney, I think you should take it easy until we're sure there are no problems," Elizabeth said.

"We'll be fine," Rodney said, with a trace of annoyance.

"I'm not asking," Elizabeth stated forcefully.

"Zpm charge is at two percent," Dr. Zalenka reported.

"At this rate, we'll only get half the power we need before the storm dissipates. Elizabeth, we're not reading ANYthing out of the ordinary. We ARE working on a time constraint here. If we don't increase the input now, we won't be able to fully charge all the zed p ms," Rodney implored.

"Zalenka," Dr. Wier addressed Raddic, "Are you reading ANYthing that could be cause for alarm?"

Raddic consulted his notebook for a few moments. "I am reading slightly elevated levels of background radiation, spiking at random intervals, but I vould have to run a more detailed scan to get more information."

"Could it be dangerous?" Dr. Wier asked, looking concerned.

"I don't think so, but my analysis will tell me more." Zalenka shrugged.

"Elizabeth please, I'm sure Dr. Over-paranoid over there is just overreacting again. I'll help Raddic with his analysis if it will make you feel better, but we need to increase the power output NOW." McKay implored.

Elizabeth thought about it for a moment. They really DID need the power. "Ok. Do it. But if you detect ANYTHING, and I do mean ANYTHING, Rodney, that is potentially dangerous, I want this project shut down IMMEDIATELY, understood?"

Rodney waved his hand dismissively at her, "Yeah, yeah, ok, will do."

John thought to himself, this smells like project Arcturis...

**Six hours later...**

Both Raddic and Rodney were busy arguing over the latest round of sensor readings. Raddic was pointing out how the radiation spikes were increasing in both severity and frequency. Rodney was insisting that unless they redirected a large energy pulse directly at the event horizon of the storm, then there was no possible way it could pose any possible threat...

**Aboard the Wraith cruiser, same time**

The queen had been most impressed with the performance of the stealth field. The ship was currently orbiting the Atlantean home world, and had scanned their base, all without the fools even knowing they were there. She was about to order her cruiser into closer orbit, when her ship suddenly jolted, Hard.

"What was that?!?" The queen demanded angrily.

"We seem to be caught in some type of spatial distortion. Engines are still at one-quarter power, but we are not moving," the starship pilot answered quickly.

"Break us free before we are discovered!" The queen shouted.

"Immediately, my queen."

"No, no, no, no, no! This is NOT happening!!! It can't be!" Rodney was in full panic mode. A few moments before, alarms began sounding. Both Rodney and Zalenka jumped into action, trying to figure what was going on.

"Rodney! What the hell did you do?" John Sheppard yelled as he made his way into Stargate Operations.

"This is NOT MY FAULT!!" Rodney screamed over the sound of the alarms.

"Rodney, this is Wier. What's the situation? I'm on my way up."

"Everything was fine up until a few moments ago when we began detecting a power output near the event horizon of the subspace storm. I don't know what's causing it," McKay responded over his earpiece.

Dr. Wier had just arrived in the Command Room, which doubled as Stargate Operations, when Dr.Zalenka let slip out, "Oh my God."

"What is it, Raddic?" Dr. Wier asked frantically.

"We don't have near the resolution, due to the long-range array being down, but-"

"Out with it, Raddic!" John yelled to the already fearful doctor.

"What appears to be a Wraith cruiser has just decloaked and is caught near the event horizon of the storm."

"WHAT?!?! They can't do that!" John said, perplexed.

"Oh no. No, no, no, no! It's much MUCH worse than that," Rodney interjected.

"A Wraith cruiser using cloaking technology and sneaking up on us IS PRETTY DAMN BAD, RODNEY!" John replied, and then noticed the city rumbling slightly. "What is that?"

"THAT." Rodney pointed to the ceiling for emphasis, "is the worse part." He turned to Dr. Wier, the fear evident in his face, "The radiation spikes we were studying earlier? I determined it would pose no threat, unless there was an influx of energy at the point of the storm. The Wraith engines are providing such energy, which is part of the reason they're probably stuck." Rodney checked his notebook for a moment. "This is not good. A spatial tear is forming. The tear is increasing as the Wraith increase the power output of their engines," The city began shaking more violently to illustrate the point. "Checking...OH God! Zalenka, we have to shut down the array now!"

"Or what?" John asked.

"Or, if the Wraith go to full power," Rodney began working frantically, " the stream of energy we're receiving will act as a tether and pull us into the tear!"

"Well, that's not good." John said, stating the painfully obvious.

"It's too late!" Raddic stated. "They are trying to open a hyperspace window!"

"RAISE THE SHIELD!!!" Elizabeth shouted.

John Sheppard heard the familiar sound of the shield going up but then began feeling something that told him whatever was about to happen, it was going to be unpleasant. "Oh, crap," he said to no one in particular, and then his world faded to black.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

**Written by Brock Joyner**

The general consensus of the members of the Atlantis expedition, the Ethosians, and the Wraith, at the moment they were all pulled into the spatial tear, just before they all lost consciousness, was this: what the hell is going on? This of course, was a very valid question. To the entity known as Q, who was taking a break from Q2, Deep Space 9, and the Federation in general, the answer was blatantly obvious- humans are idiots.

"You know, this could be considered cheating," Q2 said, as his consciousness arrived next to Q's.

If Q would have had any appendages in this form, he would have raised them in mock surrender, "I had ABSOLUTLEY nothing to do with this. At least not directly."

"You mean..."

"Yes, they did this to themselves."

"Wow. I missed the first part. What happened?"

"Well," Q started to explain. "The smart one, and I do use the term very, very loosely, thought he could master a technology that was WAY out of his league, and ended up blowing up an entire solar system."

"Idiot." Q2 commented. "Is that an Atlantean city-ship there in?"

"Yes. The humans found the last one in THIS universe. Apparently the Atlanteans of this reality weren't as thorough about cleaning up their stargates and other artifacts as they were in our reality."

"Sloppy."

"You have NO idea. Once the solar system was destroyed, the subspace energy should have dissipated normally, but about a month ago, they experimented with drawing vacuum energy from a parallel quantum reality. They shut the project down when the other universe's inhabitants complained. But the resulting energy spike-"

"Drew all that energy to them like a magnet," Q2 finished for Q.

"And then, they tried to clean up their mess by recharging their power source."

"A Human cleaning up after themselves? I'm impressed," Q2 exclaimed.

"Don't be," Q stated flatly. "They were only serving their own self-interests. The humans here have no more of an idea of galactic ecology than the Federation does."

"I know someone else who needs to learn about cleaning up after himself," Q2 chided.

"Like you know any better. Do you want to hear what happened, or are you just here to harass me?"

"Sorry, please continue." Q2 differed to Q.

"Yes, well everything would have been fine, except the Wraith showed up and wrecked it all."

"I'm sorry; I don't pay much attention to this reality. What's' a Wraith?" Q2 asked.

"Another mess the Atlaneans made and never cleaned up. They're a cross between a man and a bug, but they eat bio-neural energy from other humans."

Q2 looked shocked. "How grotesque."

"Indeed. The Wraith, while trying to spy on the humans, got their spatial drive caught in the event horizon and then tried to use their hyperspace drive to escape."

"And they are all still alive how?"

"As you know, because of the Borg trying to spread themselves everywhere, the multiverse has developed some cracks."

Q2 understood. "So instead of destroying another solar system, they're traveling along the crack. How fortunate for them."

"Oh I don't know," Q said. "You see here," he pointed to an area of the "crack" Atlantis was traveling toward, "is where they will cross the dimensional plane, and then they will most likely interact with the Borg."

"This could be interesting." Q2 underestimated.

**Atlantis**

The last time John Sheppard felt this bad, had been the morning after he had gotten his pilot wings. He still didn't remember most of that night, but the three pairs of women's' panties he had found in his room that afternoon, had assured him he had had a good time.

He didn't want to get up, let alone open his eyes, but being the military leader of the Atlantis expedition demanded that he get up. He hated command sometimes. As he opened his eyes and tried to get to his feet, he took stock of his surroundings. The command area of Stargate Operations was a mess, with laptop computers, papers and people all over the place. The damage seemed minimal, and he observed people in various stages of recovery, though none seemed seriously injured. He heard a groaning sound, and looked to Rodney McKay.

"Rodney, what the hell happened?" John asked as he tried to regain his bearings.

"Uuugghh, gimme a minute..."

"Rodney, last I saw, we had a Wraith cruiser nearby. We need to know what's going on."

"Please hurry Rodney, we need to know our current situation." Elizabeth Wier said weakly, accepting a helping hand from Sheppard while she got to her feet.

"Ok, ok, ok, I'm on it. Zalenka, help me get the senor array back on line," Rodney said, as he powered his notebook back up. Raddic Zalenka just grunted, not being able to speak coherently just yet. No one noticed the armored figure with strange forehead ridges snoring soundly on the floor near the stargate.

It took McKay and Zalenka a good fifteen minutes to get most of the command systems online, as well as to reconfigure the long range sensor array. What it showed them shocked everyone present.

"We've run the scans twice. It's no mistake. We're on Earth."

"Are you sure we're not on an Earth-like planet?" Sheppard asked, still unable to wrap his mind around this new development.

"Follow me." Rodney led Sheppard, Wier, Teyla, and a few department heads to the nearest exterior door. As he led them out on the terrace, he heard a few gasps and sounds of shock.

"There is the Sears tower. There is the Empire State building. We're floating right off the coast of New York! Does that alleviate anyone's doubts?"

"Cloak the city!" Wier said into her earpiece. She saw John giving her a strange look, and explained, "The general population isn't ready for this, John. We need to contact Stargate Command and get instructions."

"Okay. Radios don't have the range, and we can't use the stargate due to the proximity of Earths' gate, so who has a cell phone?" Rodney stated bluntly.

"Sorry, the Peagesus galaxy is a little outside of my calling plan," Sheppard sneered at Rodney. "Elizabeth, let me take a jumper. It can cloak, and I can call Stargate Command from a payphone."

"Take Rodney with you," Elizabeth said after giving it a moments' thought. "He can give details to Stargate Command and the IOA."

"Give me a moment to gather some data, and I should be ready to go."

"I'll meet you in the jumper bay." John said to Rodney as he started jogging off.

**Stargate Operations**

"Who is he?"

The question took Dr. Wier by surprise. She looked up from what she was working on to see Ronan staring down at the Stargate. When she got up to see what Ronan was looking at, she was at a loss for words. "I...I don't know," Elizabeth stuttered. This was usually John's area of expertise, but he and Rodney had taken of in a clocked jumper just minutes before. She was about to call for security, when Ronan's hand on her shoulder stopped her.

"Let me," he said. "I've been cooped up on this base for weeks with nothing to do."

Elizabeth understood. "Just...be friendly," she urged.

As Ronan backed away from her, she saw him pull out his curious sidearm and set it to stun. "I'm friendly," he said gruffly, with a small smile.

The first thing Kor son of K'rag felt after stepping through the portal to with his four other shipmates was pain. He felt himself being ripped away from his battle buddies. Then he felt like he was being ripped apart at the cellular level, which, of course, he was. The next feeling he registered was a firm poking on his left forearm. As he opened his eye-the other having been lost during a border skirmish with a Romulan warbird a few years earlier- the first thing he noticed was some type of energy pistol aimed directly at him, and the second was the large human holding the pistol.

Ronan approached the individual cautiously, with his blaster drawn. The...thing was unlike anything Ronan had ever seen. It's chest was covered with some type of metallic armor, complete with a bandoleer displaying what Ronan guessed to be some types of badges or awards.

"Who are you?" Ronan asked him.

Kor briefly assessed his situation. He was on his back, with this Human- no, this one was a warrior. Kor recognized the fire in his eyes. A challenge, then. "I am Kor, son of K'rag," he said, trying to stand up, slowly. It was harder than usual, due to the fact that Kor was disorientated, and stinking drunk. "I have answered you," Kor said. He knew the Humans were fond of talking, if he could only get this one to relax his guard... And in a moment, his warrior reflexes took over and he struck.

Ronan had watched this individual- no warrior, Ronan could see the fire in his eye, and knew that this was someone who understood things in terms of conflict and battle. That suited Ronan just fine. If he guessed right, then this warrior would attack at the first sign of weakness. Ronan slowly let his guard drop. The warrior stuck, just as predicted.

Kor started by moving in close and knocking the pistol from Ronans' grip. Ronan let it go, preferring hand-to-hand combat. After all, he wasn't sure this was an enemy, not yet. There was a nobleness about this warrior, probably some type of code of honor. Ronan struck back, grabbing the warriors' arm, and moving to the side, attempted to knock the warrior back. Kor sensed the others shift in movement. It was meant to probe his defenses, test his strength. So be it. Using his own momentum Kor threw Ronan around and dropped him flat on his back.

"Stop right there!" Several humans surrounded Kor with primitive-looking firearms. Kor looked around, and decided that if they wanted him dead, he probably would have been. He gave his attention to the petite female who had spoken to him.

Elizabeth Wier looked hard into the eye of the tall, incredibly strong humanoid. "We mean you no harm. Please, who are you? Do you know how you came to be here?"

**New York, New York**

Rick had a hard life. After 9/11, the company he worked for went bankrupt. He started drinking heavily. His girlfriend left him. He lost his apartment. Now, he spent his days sitting on a dead-end street drinking away all his troubles. On one such day, the same as any other, as he was sitting back drinking his life away, he felt a strong wind suddenly blow all around him, and then just as suddenly fall silent. He watched as heaven itself opened up. It started as a sliver, but quickly opened into a full doorway. Before Rick could see too much detail inside, he saw a tall man dressed in some type of black military uniform rush out and jog to the payphone at the corner of the block. He picked the receiver, paused, then shouted back to the doorway,

"Rodney! Got any change?!"

To Rick's surprise, there was a response, "Oh yes, of course, I happen to have a pocket FULL of quarters for when I do laundry on Atlantis!"

The man simply shrugged, then seemed to notice Rick for the first time. "You don't have a quarter, do you?"

The last thing Rick thought before he passed out was "I gotta quit drinking."

**Just outside the puddle jumper**

"Wier, this is Sheppard. We have a problem."

"This is Wier, what's wrong?"

"I tried calling Stargate Command, and then Woolsey at the IOA. I even tried to contact generals Hammond and O'Neill in Washington. All were wrong numbers. I turns out Washington had no idea who generals Hammond or O'Neill were. Or the IOA, for that matter. When I talked to the Pentagon, I tried to give them my authorization codes, which they said were no good, and that they had never heard of me, either."

"I wish I could say that was the only problem we have right now, John."

"I don't like the sound of that, Elizabeth."

"We seem to have picked up a guest in our travel. Ronan's watching him now in a holding cell. John, he says his species is called Klingon and that he's from a parallel universe."

"Do you think this has something to do with why no one here has ever heard of us?"

"I'd say it's a possibility."

"Alright, Rodney and I are on our way back. Let's see if we can get some answers from this...Klingon."

As John closed down his communication with Dr. Wier, he noticed a black car pull up. Two men, each in black suits, got out and started walking towards him.

John looked them up and down then made a joke. "Sorry, I'm happy with my own religion, thank you."

The older man responded without smiling. "That's good, son, but we're not Mormon."

"Jehovah's witness?" John questioned.

"Nope," the man said as he examined the puddle jumper. It seemed he was looking right at it, even though it was cloaked. John figured the sunglasses he was wearing had something to do with it. "This is a nice piece of cloaking technology you got here kid. What species are you?"

John's estimation of these two changed very quickly. "I'm Human," he said flatly. "And which agency are you a part of? The FBI and CIA shouldn't know about life outside our planet."

The older man looked at John for a moment, then to his partner and said, "We have a 457-971."

"And what is that?" John asked.

"Let me ask you something son, you've been trying to contact your superiors, and yet no one seems to know what you're talking about. What does that tell you?"

"It tells me that I'm not going to tell you another thing until you tell me who you people are and just what the hell is going on here!"

The older man stepped closer to him, his voice barely above a whisper, "Have you ever heard of a species called the Borg, or one called Klingons?"

After a few more minutes of talking the two men introduced themselves as Agents J and K. They told John and McKay, briefly about the MIB and its charter. John in return explained to them about the Stargate Project."

"So Atlantis, as you call it, is that huge city that's sitting cloaked out on the coast of New York right now." Agent K surmised.

In the interest of mutual cooperation, and because it would answer a great many questions, not the least of which was, "Can we trust each other," Lt' Col. decided to invite the two men in black to Atlantis to meet with Elizabeth, then all five of them would go to MIB headquarters to sort this whole mess out.

When they got back to Atlantis, it was decided that their Klingon "guest" should also travel with them, also justifying the need for Ronan to tag along. Teyla was also invited to join the party when Agent K was made aware of the Ethosion situation.

**MIB headquarters**

Dr. Wier was impressed. She had seen how Stargate Command handled "aliens", but most of those could be considered "cousins" of the Humans of Earth, with the exception of the Asgard, who very rarely had any direct contact with humanity, and the Tokra, which were an off-shoot of the worm-like G'ould. Each species only came for specific reasons, and never stayed longer than needed.

But here...There were aliens of every size, shape, and body style imaginable. The one to stand out the most, however, were the Arquillian. At first look, they were Human, but one of the delegation, who was waiting in some type of customs line, was kind enough to open his 'face' and show he what they REALLY looked like. THAT sight would stay with Wier for quite a while.

And then there were the 'worms' - as K called them, who seemed to do nothing more than sit around all day, drinking coffee and smoking cigarettes. Sheppard almost stabbed one of them when it tried to get a little to 'frisky' with her. After that, they were finally ushered into a conference room where they were introduced to the head of MIB, Zed. Zed was a gruff, no nonsense type of individual, and had a few aides with him. What surprised her the most was the Klingon at the opposite end of the table. The Klingon stood quickly as he saw his commander enter the room.

"Commander Kor, it is good to see you survive!" Klang bellowed.

"Am I am glad to see you have not seen fit to sign on with the Black Fleet!" Kor bellowed back.

As the meeting started, each group took turns providing information. Zed started, explaining what MIB was and some of the rules of conduct. Dr. Wier then took over, and explained the Stargate Program, what they knew about the Ancients, and the Atlantis expedition. Dr. McKay took over and explained Atlantean technology in more detail, and then how they came to be sitting in New York harbor. Last of all were the Klingons. Kor, being the senior officer, stood up and gave a brief history of the Klingon Empire, its dealings with Starfleet, and ultimately the peaceful alliance that forged the two powers into coexistence. Then came the part about the Borg.

"The Borg are an honorless horde who enslave other races by forced assimilation into their ranks. Almost all traces of individuality are erased and you become nothing more than a tool for the collective. They are slow and their tactics are as unimaginative as they are basic, but they do have two major strengths. The first is that when they assimilate an individual, they take as much useful information as they can; thought patterns, strategies, information about your world, technical knowledge. The Borg seek as a primary motive anything that will add to their knowledge or technical proficiency. The second is a shield system that is able to analyze what is attacking it and adapt to repel it. You will get two or three shots against any drone or Borg equipment before your weapon is rendered useless. The only way we have been able to stand against them is by developing new weapons and randomly adjusting the base frequency of existing beam weapons."

"They sound like a real pain in the rear," John quipped.

"You speak rightly, Human," Kor replied. "And if your intelligence is accurate," he motioned toward the MIB, "then timing is critical. We must move quickly. With every being they assimilate, they will have more knowledge of how to fight you. And with every piece of scrap they incorporate, they will have more means to do so."

John Sheppard looked at Dr. Wier, who in return, gave him a reassuring nod. "Well, I know this isn't really our fight, but seeing as we may need a little help getting home, we would be willing to give you a hand with your little pest control problem."

Teyla also spoke up. "My people are accomplished hunters and warriors. We would be honored to fight alongside our new allies."

It was Ronan's turn to stand up. "I can fight. I'm in."

"As heartwarming as this all is we have another problem to consider," Rodney stated. "If the Borg are drawn to new technology as much as the Klingons said they are, we have to consider Atlantis a target as well."

"Col. Sheppard will need to take Teyla back to Atlantis to consult with her people, as well as get a squad of marines," Elizabeth responded. "I want you to go back and help with damage control and get Atlantis combat ready, just in case."

With that the meeting was temporarily dismissed. Klang, K, Zed and Wier congregated around a small area of the table to discuss tactics and armaments, Sheppard, Teyla and McKay made their way to the hanger to retrieve the jumper, which left Ronan and Kor alone.

"You know, we were just getting started when we were so rudely interrupted." Kor baited.

"Yeah, they tend to do that," was Ronan's only response. He already knew what the other was thinking.

"In my culture, we sometimes fight only to hone our skills. And as Kahless the Unforgettable once said, "You only know a Klingons' soul after you have fought a worthy fight."

Ronan smiled, and then looked at J. "Do you have a sparring room around here?"


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

By Brock Joyner

Jay was astounded. He had been in a lot of fights with different people in his life, from that older kid who'd called him a chicken at summer camp, to the junkies hopped up on meth and PCP during his time with the NYPD, and even various types of aliens during his time with MIB. But he had never seen an alien that LIKED to fight as much as the Klingons. Or a human that could keep up with them as well as Ronan. The two had been going at it for well over an hour, starting first with bamboo swords, then with wooden knives, then a combination of the two, and now were in the process of teaching each other various hand to hand practices. Ronan taught the Klingon effective ways of fighting against the Wraith, while Kor taught Ronan several advanced Klingon moves. Finally, after an hour and a half, the two began to wind down.

"You fight like a true warrior," Kor said. "For that, I almost forget you are human."

"And your impressive skills almost make me forget how ugly you are," Ronan shot back.

"We have fought like warriors. Now Ronan, are you prepared to drink like one?"

"What have you got?"

In response, Kor moved and picked up a large skin that he had brought with him from his "home". "Bloodwine, the only drink fit for a warrior!"

At this point J felt he needed to intervene. "If you want to drink or eat, the mess hall is this way."

222222

John Sheppard's mind was racing. For the last hour, Teyla, he and Dr. Wier had been talking with Zed, K, and Klang about how to address the Borg threat. Sheppard and Teyla had volunteered most of the manpower, as MIB personnel were spread thin at the moment. MIB would supply weapons from their impressive arsenal. Meanwhile Klang would be working with MIB specialists and Dr. McKay, via radio, to modify weapons to be more effective against the Borg's adaptive capabilities. Until that was complete, it made little sense to make final plans. Zed and Dr. Wier began a deep, and boring, conversation, discussing differences between their two realities, leaving John with nothing to do.

"So how long have you been away from Earth?" K asked John.

"Well I've been back a few times for briefings, but the last time I was able to actually spend time on Earth was a little over two years ago." John replied.

"So you haven't had any REAL Earth food in a while, I take it."

"Well, there aren't exactly any McDonald's or Burger King's in our town, at least not yet."

K smiled at the comment. "I was thinking of doing a little investigating, but my 'partner' is busy babysitting. If you want to tag along, I could make it worth it..."

"You know, a nice, juicy steak sounds good about now."

"I know just the place, slick," K said as the two started to walk to the door.

33333333

About an hour later

The place K took John wasn't a five star restaurant, but the food was great! The two attacked a three course steak dinner like neither one had eaten in days, which was literally true for K. John felt a little uncomfortable at first, as he was required to leave his combat vest and all his weapons back at MIB headquarters, as well as remove his mission patches from his jacket to "blend in" better, but when K had shown him the arms he kept in his car, John relaxed.

"So, you ACTUALLY let him get knocked around THAT much by a pregnant alien, and didn't even WARN him?" John said, laughing at K's story of agent J's first day on the job.

"J is competent, resourceful and skilled," K explained, "but he has this unnatural need to jump in to EVERY situation and establish himself BEFORE he evaluates the situation."

"So he's overconfident, and you use these things to take him down a notch."

"Life is always the best teacher," K said, smiling and shaking his head.

"Sounds like Rodney. Let me tell you about the time we found an ancient warship in a volcano..."

After they had finished eating and telling each other amusing stories about their coworkers, the server came to deliver their bill. K put on his sunglasses, and motioned for John to put on the pair that he had loaned him. John followed suit. When the server had arrived, K pulled a small, cylinder out of his coat pocket. John thought it was a camera at first, with the way it flashed, but then K told her something, and she blinked, and moved off without another word.

As John and K walked out of the restaurant, John couldn't resist any longer.

"Some type of hypnosis?"

"Something like that," K said, "We call it a neuralizer. It can blank the short or long term memory as needed and makes the recipient open to suggestion for a few moments."

"Cool. Any chance I could borrow that?"

K just smiled, and shook his head.

As they pulled in front of some hole-in-the-wall pawn shop on the corner of a street, K said, " Ok, Tiger, we're here."

"Okaaaay, and this "informant" works here?"

"Something like that," K said as they stepped inside.

As John stepped inside, he noticed how disorganized everything was. He also noticed the odd looking man behind the counter, and how he seemed to cringe as soon as he saw K.

"K. What do you want now, I didn't DO anything!" the man said nervously.

"Jeebs, you never do anything," K responded casually, "so how is it that a man who does nothing, get into so much trouble?"

"I have no Idea, K," Jeebs laughed nervously, "I must be a trouble magnet, I guess."

"Jeebs, cut the crap. What are you into now?"

"What do you mean, K, I have no idea what you're talking about."

"We've got a large group of cybornetic creatures in the sewers below us who are armed and dangerous, and I want to know what you have to do with it!" K said, forcefully.

"I don't know nutin' about the BORG!"

"Then how did you know their name," John cut in.

"Uh...uh...uh...didn't K say that?"

"No I didn't. Now do you want to get shot?"

"Whoa, whoa, ok! Mabe I heard sumpthin'..."

"Aaaand..." John prompted, K simply pulled out his sidearm.

"Hey! There's no need for that!" Jeebs shouted in panic. "Alright! I heard about a group of half men, half robots taking people down below. And they always start by saying something like, 'We are the Borg, we're going to take your body and soul...' or something like that..." 

"Thanks Jeebs," K said, and then promptly blew the mans' head off.

"HEY! That's a little unnecessary, don't you think?" John said in alarm.

"No, not really."

Before John who could respond, he heard a noise. It started as a high-pitch squeal, but turned into a steady stream of cursing. To Johns' utter astonishment, he watched as Jeebs' head grew back into place. "This is weird," was all John could manage to say.


	7. Chapter 7

CHAPTER 7

By Brock Joyner

After K and John left the pawn shop, the two wandered around New York and talked with several other of K's interesting contacts, although none were as interesting as Jeebs, with the possible exception of Frank the dog. Frank had his paws into everything. And K found out that in addition to people missing, some of the ships various parties had used to reach Earth were also going missing. This prompted John to call Rodney McKay and have him start trying to upgrade the puddle jumpers shield and weapons systems. Rodney balked at first, but when John started putting the pressure on, Rodney suddenly got an idea and hung up.

John and K arrived back at MIB headquarters, and after filling in both Elizabeth and Zed, they went to go find Ronan and J. As they arrived in the cafeteria, John was greeted by the loud, obnoxious sound of very bad and off-key singing. What startled him more was that Ronan was one of the singers.

"John!!!!" Ronan shouted with enthusiasm, not to mention a huge smile on his face.

"I see you're having fun," John said

"Just getting to know our new friends better," Ronan slurred.

"Are you drunk?"

Ronan responded by passing a large glass to John. "Yup. Try this."

John smelled the beverage. "What IS it?"

"Bloodwine!" Kor shouted. "My family's finest vintage!" At that, both Kor and Ronan threw their heads back and laughed, then slammed their fists into the table.

"I think I'll pass," John said as he tried to hand the glass back to Ronan.

"What?! Ronan, I thought you said you're friend here was a warrior!! How does he shy away from bloodwine like a..a..a..Ferengi!" Kor said loudly.

John had no idea what a Ferengi was, but it didn't sound good. "For keeping up friendly alliances," he thought as he took a healthy drink. It was the worst tasting, most vile liquid he had ever ingested up to this point in his life. Worse yet, it felt like drinking heavy duty motor oil that had been lit on fire. And, he could already feel the effects of the alcohol starting to hit his system.

"Wow. I think I'll stick to beer, thanks," John said as he handed the cup back to Ronan. "You do know that we need to be mission ready at anytime, right?"

Ronan drained the glass, slammed it on the table, and then as he tried to stand he said, "I'm good. Uh, uh oh. No I'm not," he reprised after falling back into his chair.

"Get some food and sober up, that's an order," John said lightly.

Ronan, for his part, gave a mock salute, and promptly passed out next to an already snoring Kor.

After leaving Ronan and Kor in the tender care of a few MIB medics, one of which John couldn't quite keep his eyes off of, J, K and he went and found Zed and Elizabeth for a status report. Elizabeth was talking to someone on her earpiece when she saw John enter the room. She interrupted Dr. McKay and said, "Hold on Rodney, Col. Sheppard just walked in and I want him to hear this as well."

John touched his earpiece, "Go ahead Rodney, what's up?" _Did I just say 'what's up?' That blood wine must've packed more of a punch than I thought_, John thought to himself.

"As I was telling Elizabeth, the Ancients' already had systems in place to do what you wanted me to do, namely upgrade the weapons and shields, but did so in a way that they could manually adjust them, so I, being the brilliant scientist I am, wrote a program to upload..."

"Great, Rodney," John said, cutting him off, "how long will it take to program the jumpers?"

"It's already done." John could hear the smirk in Rodney's voice. "And I even loaded it into Atlantis's mainframe in case the city was attacked."

"That's great, Rodney. So are we all set to go then?"

"Not quite. All of ATLANTIS'S systems are upgraded, but we're having more trouble with some of the MIB's weapons. We've had to come up with a universal remote access system to install on most of the weapons so they can reconfigure their frequencies. Then we had to adapt my program so that they will be able to change frequency at random."

"So, what's the problem?" John asked.

"The problem is that we have to build a remote for each weapon, and it takes a while to build!" said Rodney.

"Klang reports that he has about ten finished so far," Elizabeth chimed in. "But to have enough for all our people will take about six to eight hours."

"That's too long!" John complained.

"Agreed." K said. "I could take junior here, P and C and slow them down," he said, motioning at J.

John added, seeing where K was going, "And I could take Teyla and some of their marines, and go with them."

"John, what about Ronan? He or one of the Klingons might help," Elizabeth suggested.

"Ronan and one of the Klingons are passed out in the mess hall." At Elizabeth's questioning look, John added, "It's a warrior thing. You know, getting some sleep before the great battle and all."

"Ok," Zed said gruffly, "but K, you're going to get Intel and slow them down; not wage a one man war."

John started by gathering Teyla and four marines, and then followed J and K down to the armory where they were to meet agents P and C. After a brief explanation by a very busy Klang about the remotes and how they worked, including a manual button that would also change the frequencies, just in case, K showed Teyla and John the weapons they would use and gave them a brief description of each. John's was bigger and more bulky than his P-90, but from what K had said about it there was considerably more firepower. Teyla's weapon was more of a rifle-style, and it was decided she would hang back and provide cover fire, as it was too big for close-quarters combat. Teyla was unhappy about it, but John was secretly relieved. If anything happened to her..._No, John, best NOT think along those lines_, John quietly thought to himself.

"I had a hard time putting a remote on this," Klang said as he handed K another weapon, "but here it is, just as you asked."

K turned to J, "I know how much you would missed your old sidearm, so here it is, the noisy cricket-mark 2."

John couldn't help but to laugh. Hard.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8- Down we go once more...**

Sewer tunnels under New York

The first stop they were to make was to go back to the Neptunian enclave. Once they arrived, they were all horrified. The chamber was smeared all over with pieces of Murcuron all over the place, but no Nuptunians anywhere.

"What has happened here?" Teyla asked, barely able to keep the revulsion out of her voice.

"Whatever it was, it wasn't good," John commented.

"We ran into this before," K said flatly. "These Borg only seem interested in higher lifeforms. The Murcurons were unfortunately slaughtered."

"Well...that sucks," was Johns only answer.

"Not really," was J's only response.

It took nearly twice as long for the squad of ten to traverse the tunnel that J and K had traveled only two days earlier. As they neared the tunnel opening, they came to a halt.

"Okay, we need a plan," John stated.

"The first time we were in there," J began, "there were two targets of note. The first is a double-cylinder object near the middle of the room. We don't know what it is or what it does, but we saw a lot of activity around the object, so we can assume it's important. The second is..."

"What?" John said, bracing himself.

"The second target is a group of beds near the object. This is where they finish, uh, assimilating their victims. If we can hit that, we can slow them down and possibly cripple their operations."

"Ok. So why doesn't my team," John said, indicating his marines with a thumb gesture, "go after the mystery object, while you guys go after the beds. Meanwhile, Teyla can set up back here to give us cover fire and cover our exit." Both Teyla and K nodded in agreement

"Let's do this," J said to no one in particular.

By mutual consent, both teams would get into position before the fireworks would start. Intel provided by Klang and Kor stated that the Borg would ignore anything not perceived as a threat, and the teams planned to exploit that as best as possible. John handed K an earpiece so they would stay in contact.

"Something's different here slick," K reported into the earpiece. K immediately noticed the lack of clutter. There were no trains, no railcars, no scraps of any kind. Conversely, there were close to twenty cubes near one of the tunnels that would eventually lead to the surface. They looked to fit about five to ten people in each cube, and K could see no sensor arrays, or engines of any kind. Some were still in various stages of construction, looking to be almost completed. Whatever they were planning, it would be soon. "Those cubes over there," K continued, "weren't there last time, and this cavern was filled with trains, and scrap metal."

"I may know where they came from," John stated. "I'm in view of the mystery object, and it looks to me like they are taking pieces of a flying saucer and putting it into the device. On the other side, parts are coming out that look like pieces for those…scout ships? Was that what Klang called them?"

"Yes he did. Sounds to me like a matter converter, and I think we know who's behind the spaceship robberies."

"But why are they dismantling them? Don't they work?"

"Some do, some may not. Maybe their ships are more powerful. I think that should be our primary target."

"Agreed, but we should still hit the matter converter."

K opened the bag John had given him. Inside were two types of grenades. The first was standard military issue, easy to use. The second type were used by the Wraith, and had been collected by John's team on various missions. Of those, he only had four. Sheppard had taken another four with him. K passed the more potent Wraith grenades out to his team, taking the last one for himself. "Ready when you are, kid."

"Call me John. On three?"

As John counted down, everyone either set their timers or pulled their pins. When John said "NOW!!" eight moderate-yield Wraith grenades and two frag grenades were sent flying to their targets. The resulting explosions would have both blinded and deafened anyone in the cavern not covering their ears or averting their eyes. Of the matter replicator, very little remained other than the base and a few small pieces of burning metal. One of the scout ships was obliterated, and blew pieces of itself in all directions, causing moderate to severe damage to the closest cubes, minor damage to a few more, and caused the deaths of a few drones.

"Grenade the beds!!!" John shouted, as he pulled the pin from a frag grenade. Another volley, and another series of explosions, and the Borg processing beds were history. The combined group threw a third volley into the now approaching mass of drones, and although the explosion was impressive, did little to no damage.

"They've adapted to the grenades," K remarked.

"How in the world did they put up those…those shield thingies so fast!!" J shouted.

"It doesn't matter!" Sheppard yelled over the earpiece. "Fire at will!!"

At first it seemed like a good idea, John thought. Go in, blow stuff up, and watch the pandemonium. The Borg had other plans. After the destruction of the matter replicator and scout ship, the Collective quickly identified the new threats. And while most of the drones were sent to deal with the threat directly, a few were sent down a side tunnel to circumvent the current targets, courtesy of Klingon tactics.

The weapons developed and supplied by the Men in Black, and upgraded by Klang and Dr. McKay, were working very well. Borg drones were dropping left and right, but there were so many! John Sheppard knew it would be only a matter of time before they were overrun by sheer numbers.

"We need to pull back!" Sheppard shouted to K. "There's to many! We've done what we needed to do!"

K hated to admit it, but the youngster was right. After a moment's hesitation, he made it official. "All right."

Teyla was firing her rifle as fast as she could to cover their retreat. John, intent on covering their rear, made sure that everyone was out of the cavern. He pulled back and tapped Teyla on the back, letting her know it was safe to go, backed up further and did the same to MIB agent P, who was covering Johns' escape.

John had no sooner turned to run, when the entire wall next to him seemed to explode. He landed on his back next to agent P, who had clearly taken the brunt of the blow. Teyla shouted something at him, but the blast left his ears ringing. Several marines turned around and started opening fire. John turned around to see what they were shooting at and saw the source of the explosion. A few drones, one of which looked like their Klingon buddies, had blown through a wall in the middle of the group. One of his marines was on the ground, grey spider web like things seeming to grow under his skin, while another was clearly dead. John checked Agent P for signs of life and found none. That was when he realized his predicament. The drones were still advancing behind him, and this new threat was advancing on him from the front.

"Dammit!" was the only thing Sheppard could think to say. Then a thought occurred to him. It was a long shot, but it might just work...

After the explosion, Teyla had whipped around just in time to see John Sheppard knocked on his back. One of the marines tried to get to him to render aid but a hand reached out of the wall and grabbed hold. Teyla watched in horror as the drone injected something into his arm from two small tubes extending from his hand. The marine screamed in pain for a moment, then slid down the wall, shivering. Teyla saw movement out of the corner of her eye, and shouted, "John Don't let them touch you!!"

K was busy shooting drones when he heard Teyla's shout. He took a minute to look at John Sheppard, and then yelled to everyone, "CLOSE YOUR EYES!!!!!


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9 ANOTHER strategic retreat...**

**ACT 1**

John Sheppard frantically searched agent P's inside pocket until he found it. He pulled out the neurolizer, and remembering how agent K used his on that pretty waitress. He activated it, heard K shout, "CLOSE YOUR EYES!!!" did the same, and pressed the button. When he opened his eyes, all the Borg were standing still as stone.

"Let's get the hell out of here!!" John shouted as he got up.

Teyla was dumbfounded. "What just happened?" she asked, more to herself out loud, than to anyone in particular.

Agent K responded as they began a hasty retreat back down the tunnel, "Standard issue MIB neurolizer. It's designed to erase short-term memories and as a side effect, leaves the recipient incapacitated for a few seconds." With the way Teyla was now looking at him, K decided it was best not to mention the other intended purpose of the device, to create false memories.

"Why would such a thing be 'standard issue'? Who are you to use such a device?" Teyla asked.

K ignored the righteous indignation coming from her voice, "Let me ask you this, do you like the memories you have of the Wraith? Do you like the memories you're going to have from this little experience? You have had experiences with alien forms of life. It's common knowledge to you. But on Earth, there have BEEN no formal contacts with Earth's governments because the PEOPLE ARE NOT READY! The citizens of this Earth couldn't take the idea that extra-terrestrials are living among us. I have watched HUNDREDS of people freak out at the sight of one. Trust me when I say that using a neurolizer is more humane than the alternative.

"He's not wrong, you know," John said, catching up to them. "On my Earth, most people have no Idea about Stargates, life on other planets, or life-sucking aliens who would love to visit our world only because to them its an all you can eat buffet. The only difference is that most of the leadership of Earth has met with most of our other-worldly allies and are merely keeping their mouths shut to the general public until we can figure out a way to tell people in a way that won't cause mass hysteria. I mean, look at Johnson," John pointed to the partially assimilated marine, who had been restrained and was now being carried by the two remaining marines and agents J and C, "do you REALLY think he's going to WANT to remember his little experience?"

"But a leadership who deceives its people is NOT honorable and would not be tolerated by my people," Teyla stated, her feelings made clear by the emotion in her voice.

"We can debate this later. Right now we need to leave," K said, as he picked up the pace.

**ACT 2**

The Wraith queen woke with a start. Never, in all the centuries that she had lived, had she ever felt as bad as she did now. It was worse than being hungry, she thought to herself. She picked herself up off the floor and eased into her throne. She first noted that her personal guards were already up and guarding her. The second thing she noticed was the extra guards holding her chief scientist before her.

"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO ME!?!?" she roared at him.

The scientist winced visibly in pain from the force of the psychic blast that accompanied her words. "It was not just you my queen; we were all knocked unconscious by..."

"Tell me what happened!" she interrupted. The queen would have gone to him and ripped the information from his mind, but she still felt too weak, and did not wish to show it. Her intimidation had its desired effect. She could see it in his eyes. Rule by force, she had been taught, consume the weak, and show none yourself.

The scientist knew his death would be imminent if he didn't speak quickly. "From our sensor readings, it looks like the anomaly we were caught in was actually the beginnings of a type of hyperspace window the Atlanteans were creating. We appear to have been caught in the event horizon..."

"Spare me your techno-babble," the queen sneered.

She was about to have the guards bring him to her so she could feed on him, when he squealed, "My queen!! I have news!"

She responded menacingly, "Make your words count; they may be your last."

The scientist visibly gulped. "If my queen would activate her viewer..."

She decided it was worth it. "What am I looking at?"

"We have verified it as the Atlanteans destination, and by signals broadcasting from the same planet, we've determined... my queen, it's EARTH."

All thoughts of reprisals and pain were temporarily banished from the queen's mind. "What is the ships' status?" She demanded.

The scientist responded carefully. "We are still assessing all systems, but I know that because no one ever shut the cloak off, it re-activated itself automatically. I sent a pilot out and he confirmed this. NO ONE KNOWS WE'RE HERE!!" He finished excitedly.

"You have just saved your own life. For now. Repair us as fast as you can. I want to know the defensive capabilities of the planet and the status of Atlantis as soon as possible."

"At once my queen." The scientist bowed and practically ran out of her throne room.

This news infused the queen with strength that usually only a feeding could accomplish. As she rose to go to the storage area to feed, she reached out with her mind and found her military commander. "Prepare all troops. We will gorge ourselves soon."

After a frantic hour and a half, the chief scientist was able to report that with the exception of the long-range comm array, the ship was in near perfect order. Without hesitation, the queen ordered the culling to begin.


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10 First King Kong, then Godzilla, then the borg, why's it ALWAYS New York...**

By Brock Joyner

**ACT 1**

**MIB Headquarters**

The first priority upon returning to MIB headquarters was to isolate Sergeant Johnson, or 131 of 366 of junction 142 as he now referred to himself. The MIB had a few long-term holding cells and were able to adapt a Psychic suppression field to prevent Sergeant Johnson from contacting the collective via the subspace link that Rodney McKay had identified using Atlantis's sensor array. Rodney also stated, quite proudly, that he was working on a way to track the Borg by using the same array.

"Can we use the city to block the subspace link permanently?" John asked?

"Not on a planet-wide scale, no," Rodney answered back via comm relay. John was sitting once again in the same conference room that they had been before.

Dr. Wier, J, K, Zed, Ronan and the Klingons were all present. Ronan looked like someone who was experiencing the worst hangover of his life and drinking some "super blend" of coffee the worms had whipped up. The worms' exact phrase was something like "The best coffee yet" And "This'll REALLY get your mojo goin'".

The Klingon, Kor, looked only slightly hung-over, but was sulking in the corner because there had been fighting and he missed it.

_Kinda reminds me of Tackleberry from Police Academy_, John thought to himself. Klang on the other hand, looked invigorated. The shame he felt at vomiting and losing his friends seconds after arriving in this universe had been apparent, and his hard work modifying the weapons had been some type of penance for him. But after hearing of the success of the mission, and more importantly the weapons, those around him could tell Klang was looking forward to regaining some of his "lost honor", as he called it. As it was, he looked pepped up enough to try take on the Borg by himself.

"I do have an Idea, though," Rodney said, continuing his discourse.

"Actually, WE have an Idea." That voice belonged to Raddic Zalenka, not wanting to let McKay hog all the glory.

"Yes, yes, yes. Anyway WE have an idea. With the full database at our disposal, The SGC's mission reports on the replicators, and our own experience with nanotechnology, we may, and I do stress, MAY, be able to blanket the city with a type of subspace dampening field."

"That's all well and good, son," Zed said. "But how can we stop them for good?"

John suddenly shot straight up in his seat. "Stunners. After we fire off the field, we stun as many of these Borg guys as we can and if we can rig a vehicle with the same field your using on Sergeant Johnson, we capture as many as we can and try to reverse the process."

"An admirable goal, Human," Kor said. "But these are BORG. The people they used to be are gone. Even in my time, such actions you speak of are next to impossible. No, it is better to give them the final honor and let their tortured souls find peace in the next life."

"These people did not ask for this to happen," Teyla said as she stood to her feet and addressed everyone. "These people are hostages. I do not know how Klingon "honor" deals with this, but I believe I know how the people of Earth would react. And I know my people would do anything in our power to rescue such individuals and release them from this...bondage."

Klang looked at Kor, and then spoke up. "My lord, what of the Human Picard? I do not disagree with you with respect to KLINGON beliefs and tradition, but as we know, Humans believe very...differently." Klang was about to say something else, but did not wish to create strife in this uneasy alliance.

"Humans, do what you will with your own," Kor spat, "But know this. Any Borg I face in battle, I will kill. And if you come across any Klingon warriors who have fallen to this... plague, respect OUR 'beliefs'"-he sneered at the word-"as well."

"Weather killing or not is the humane thing to do aside," Elizabeth said, trying to keep the peace, "we need to know IF WE CAN in fact save these people." She looked at Klang. "Who is this Picard and what does he have to do with the Borg?"

"When the Borg first appeared in the Alpha Quadrant, they sought out the Federation starship Enterprise. Picard was its master, no, its captain. He was captured and assimilated and used as a means to conquer Starfleet with his knowledge."

At this point a MIB woman came in and whispered something into Zed's ear, who then politely excused himself.

"The crew of the Enterprise made a daring rescue of Picard, and managed to destroy the Borg ship. Afterward, the chief surgeon of the Enterprise was able to remove the components from Picard and he resumed command of his ship," Klang said, and then added, "Although not all attempts by Starfleet have been as successful. The Borg build in redundant systems and "grow" critical components in key areas of the body - the brain, heart and so forth, to regulate the drones' body more effectively. If they are not removed properly, it can be fatal."

"Dr. Beckett has transported over and is working with the MIB medical staff, and hopefully together they can come up with something." Elizabeth tried to look optimistic.

"Your doctor is a credit to his profession," Zed said as he returned to his chair. "He hasn't been able to remove ALL the devices yet, but he reports that Sergeant Johnson should be out of surgery within the next hour, and is no longer referring to him self in the collective "we"."

"That's good to hear," John Sheppard said, "I'd like to debrief him when he wakes up."

"Get in line," Zed retorted, but put up a hand to forestall any argument, "He's your man, you get first pick. I will want to be there, of course."

"Fine," John replied.

**ACT 2**

**An hour and a half later**

John Sheppard stood next Sergeant Johnson's bed, while Zed stood respectfully against the rear wall.

"So..how's the food?" John quipped.

"I've had worse. Better than our hospital food," Johnson replied weakly.

"How do you feel?"

"It was horrible... I heard them... All of them... It's hard to explain. Some of the thoughts were so alien…so hard to comprehend," Johnson said, his expression blank, and his eyes glossed over.

"Well, its over now," John said, trying to console his marine. "I don't want to pry, especially so soon, but is there anything you can tell us that we can use against them?"

"They are...coldly efficient. Apathetic. They don't care about anything. They have this...obsession with knowledge. They need to be perfect. Everything else is a means to attain that goal. The Borg consume everything of value to them. It rivals everything we've been told about Wraith hunger. The knowledge they have is incredible. It spans thousands of years, thousands of worlds. Entire cultures have become extinct, destroyed resisting the Borg. Others were simply overwhelmed and assimilated. Their plan is... OH GOD!"

Both Zed and Sheppard rushed to the bedside. "What is it?" they both asked in unison.

"Colonel Sheppard. They know about Atlantis. They KNOW," he said, wide-eyed. "They were about to send their scout ships out to other worlds. They... acquired a technology that enables them to visit other dimensions. They were sent out in small groups. Each group was to set up a new branch of the collective, assimilate Earth, and then the rest of the quantum universe that they are in. When they are able they are to send back a beam to where they originated to share the knowledge that they accumulated. The Borg that arrived in this universe learned stealth, from MIB's standing orders not to reveal the existence of extra-terrestrial life and the assimilated aliens' own natural fear of discovery. The knowledge that the collective assimilated from various species, convinced the collective to attempt to take several planets at once. That way, they will be starting on several fronts at the same time and they are less likely to have the world they are on blown up from underneath them if they are on an important home world."

"So that's why they were building the scout ships." John surmised.

Zed nodded. "And it shows that the Borg must already know that we've already faced a number of threats to blow up Earth by aliens who thought that Earth could become a threat to them or the galaxy."

"But now they know about Atlantis. I didn't want to...they just...took it from my mind. Atlantis is something they can't resist. The collective will be coming for it. And, they know they have been discovered, so they will abandon their stealth plan. Without it, they will be able to move MUCH faster."

John Sheppard and Zed were able to talk with Sgt. Johnson for a little while longer, but were unable to gain anymore useful information.

**ACT 3**

**Conference room, MIB headquarters, same time**

"It is time to continue our conversation," Teyla said bluntly to K.

"I'm not sure there's anything to discuss," K responded evenly.

Elizabeth Wier had heard from Col. Sheppard about the Neuralizer and Teyla's reaction to it. Although she was pretty sure Teyla wouldn't let the conversation come to blows, she decided to sit in on this conversation, just to keep things civil. "I have to admit, agent K, I'm a little disturbed from what I've heard as well."

"Such as what, Dr. Wier?" K asked.

"Well," Elizabeth started, "Is really necessary to "erase" people's memories? Isn't there something else that can be done?"

"You should know better than that, Dr. Wier. After all, I happen to know you keep you're 'Stargate project' secret. Surely you're not trying to ague that this is any different, are you?"

"No, of course not. I DO understand the need for secrecy, but then, we very RARELEY allow other worldly citizens access to Earth outside of Stargate Command, and most of our words' leadership is aware of the Stargate project. My own team is comprised of citizens from several countries, demonstrating our cooperation as a planet. You on the other hand, are a single entity, with no official ties to ANY government, which leaves the question of accountability wide open."

"I do not understand," Teyla interrupted, "Why is there a need for secrecy in the first place? Do you not view such deception as dishonorable?"

"I don't know if you're Earth is the same," K said to Dr. Wier. "But the humans here are paranoid, fearful and in some cases racist. They can hardly work together on ANYTHING without them breaking down and fighting about petty things like religious beliefs, skin color and perceived wrongs that, in some cases, took place centuries ago. To suddenly tell THOSE same people that their next door neighbor, their barber, or the person that serves their food is from a planet that eats their own young, or drinks laundry detergent because it intoxicates them, or that they are really a slimy, putrid ball of slime with four eyes and takes his girlfriend to the local sewer because its a romantic getaway, could be VERY bad."

"You are afraid of violent repercussions against these…aliens?" Teyla speculated.

"Very much so," K answered. "And many of these aliens on Earth are from worlds that are openly hostile to Earth, seeking asylum from these governments."

"Like political refugees," Dr. Wier added, looking thoughtful.

"Exactly like that," K said. "And the REASON why we use the Neuralizer is, in part, to protect these people, and protect their RIGHT TO PRIVACY."

"And the 'other part'?" Teyla asked.

"Occasionally we have a being that doesn't like to follow the rules. When that happens, we need to 'contain' the threat. In that situation we can't have some bystander blab what they saw and draw undue attention to us."

Teyla was forced to agree with the MIB intentions, if not their methods. Before she could press the issue further, however, she heard an alarm begin sounding.

"What's going on?" Elizabeth asked.

K's response was to get up and walk out the door.

Within a few minutes, K entered the command area with Elizabeth and Teyla hot on his tail. He walked up behind the twins and observed the main screen for answers, when Zed entered the area with John Sheppard close behind.

"What is it now?" Zed demanded gruffly.

"Oh my God." Elizabeth said, staring at the screen in disbelief.

John saw the one sight he never wanted to see again. EVER. The screen showed dozens, almost hundreds of ships appearing out of nowhere near Earth orbit and begin to fly toward the planet. They were small, one man fighters, thin and needle-like, and very familiar to Sheppard, as he had both shot some down and even flown one.

"Who are they?" K asked, looking at Sheppard.

"They are WRAITH," Teyla spat out.

John on the other hand, activated his earpiece. As he did so, he asked K, "Do you have any more advanced fighters than the military? I can tell you, F-14's and 16's are no match for those things."

K shook his head silently.

"McKay, this is Sheppard, We've got incoming. I want all rail guns manned and operated. And GET SOME JUMPERS IN THE AIR!"

"The Wraith are here? How'd they...never mind. Is there anymore good news I should know about?" McKay said sarcastically over the comm.

"Yeah. The Borg know about Atlantis and should be heading your way soon."

"We are dead. We are so dead. I mean, we are SCREWED-"

"McKay! Quit your whining AND GET MY MEN TO THIER POSITIONS!" John yelled into the earpiece.

Elizabeth activated her own earpiece and had been listening to the exchange. "Rodney, what's the status of the city?"

"Oh just great. We are so screwed-"

"Rodney! Focus!" Elizabeth snapped.

"All systems are a go," Dr. Zalenka chimed in, "but ve need some time to prepare-"

Just then the main screen changed and alarms began blaring again. The screen now separated into four sections, each showing a different area of New York City. In each scene, it showed Borg drones flowing out of buildings and exits like water. Some were Human, a few were Neptunations, a number of other alien species could also be seen. They were stabbing people with the tubules extended from their hand. Those that were stabbed, after a few moments of painful grimaces and some convulsing, began to get up and head back into the sewers.

"This is bad," John said.

"John, take me back to Atlantis. We need to cut down our problems," Dr. Wier said.

"You're the doc," John turned to K and Zed. "We'll take care of the Wraith and come back to help."

"Go. We can hold our own," Zed said.

"Yeah. It's not like we don't save Earth on a regular basis, or anything," J added.

John Sheppard ran with Elizabeth to the hanger. After a quick start up inspection, the two sped off to Atlantis. After landing in the jumper bay, the two ran to the control room. Once there Rodney and Sheppard ran off to the chair room. Elizabeth's voice came over the city wide announcer a moment later.

"Attention everyone. We are about to engage a Wraith cruiser that has followed us here. In addition, a race of cybernetic beings known as the Borg, who's main goal is to enslave people who have advanced technology, may interfere with us as well. I don't have to tell you this is dangerous. But people, many who we've only just met, are depending on us. Thank you in advance for your courage and bravery in the battle to come."

Once in the chair room, Rodney immediately hooked up his laptop computer and began running tests, while John sat down in the control chair and began to power it up.

"All systems look good," McKay reported.

"OK. Here we go."

To use Ancient technology, one was required to posses a certain inactive gene within the genetic structure. It acted like a keycard, to let only authorized users access to the secrets of the Ancients. The chances of being born with this gene were extremely rare, so Dr. Beckett had come up with an Ancient synthetic, or ATA gene therapy. There were no harmful side effects to the therapy, and it allowed about 1 in every 2 people inoculated to use the Ancient technology. The Ancients used a combination of physical and mental input to use a device, requiring a person to concentrate on what they wanted. Depending on the persons' genetic make up, some had an easier time of using the Ancient devices, while others had to concentrate hard enough on the object that they would almost herniate themselves just to turn on a light. John Sheppard was one of the few lucky people to have been born with the ATA gene, and in significant quantity that flying something like a puddle jumper barely caused him any strain at all.

As John tilted the chair back to activate it, he didn't feel a thing, which was normal. Ancient technology had components that allowed it to "read" the thoughts of the user, but it did not create any kind of psychic link or bond. John Thought about the cloak. He mentally switched the cloak that hid the city over to the defensive shield that would protect the city, and, more importantly, keep everyone from suffocating in the environment that they were about to go into. Next, he focused on the stardrive, and within seconds, began to feel the city begin to rumble ever so softly.

"John, is everything ok?" Elizabeth asked over the comm. Once receiving the ATA gene, she herself had tried to power up the chair. She knew that even with the therapy she would not have anywhere near John's level of control. She had to struggle hard to do the most basic things. She tried, but couldn't imagine what Sheppard was feeling.

"This thing is a little bigger than a jumper, but I'll be fine," John responded.

Atlantis slowly began to lift into the air. For the second time in 10 million years, and the first time in this universe, the city-starship Atlantis left the surface of Earth and headed into space.

**ACT 4**

**MIB Headquarters**

If anyone had been watching, they would have agreed that seeing Atlantis rise and take off was an impressive sight, however the Men in Black had other things to worry about. Earth was in danger and its citizens needed to be protected. Agents J and K rallied several agents, some who had just arrived from other parts of the world after receiving a priority recall notice from MIB command. Teyla and Ronan were busy equipping the marine squads and Ethosian warriors that had been brought from Atlantis. As the two groups came together, Zed made some final changes. The groups were separated into four groups, each group consisting of several MIB agents to help guide the newcomers through unfamiliar urban streets, while the rest were made up of marines and Ethosian warriors. Teyla and Ronan took command of the first group, J and Klang the second, K and Kor the third, and agent C and F rounded out commanders for the fourth.

After Zed's briefing, which mainly stated that MIB agents were to use their weapons on stun settings whenever possible and four specially fitted vans with the newly created subspace dampening fields would retrieve the stunned Borg. MIB wanted to save as many people as possible. Teyla's instructions to her people and to the marines was similar. Stun and capture if possible: kill only if necessary.

"If it's between you and them...well, you know," Ronan had added.

With little more time, the groups began to move out, when Kor shouted out, "TODAY IS A GOOD DAY TO DIE!!!"

To that, Zed replied, " We have a similar saying in our world from a powerful general I think you would have liked, 'You're job is not to die for your country, but make some other poor S.O.B. die for his."

Kor was a little shocked. He had no idea humans could be so poetic.

**ACT 5**

**Atlantis**

John had never been one for meditation. He had tried during the time he was in a 'commune' with a bunch of people bent on ascending. The people had often spoken of feelings of peace and tranquility, and a sense of serenity. For the most part, it made John want to fall asleep. But while he was in the chair, telling this great city to rise into the heavens, he could almost appreciate and relate to what those people had said. Almost. He could sense the city's status. Atlantis was just now reaching past the upper atmosphere and heading into low orbit. He set Atlantis on course to where the Wraith darts had been appearing.

Just then, Rodney spoke up. "We have multiple contacts following us from Earth."

"Yes, Rodney, I can see that," Sheppard replied.

"You can? I didn't think Ancient Technology...Oh, I see." Rodney corrected himself when he saw that Sheppard had reconfigured the overhead holographic display to show the tactical situation. "What the hell are they doing?"

At first Sheppard couldn't tell. The ships were cubes, about the same size as the ones he had encountered in the sewers planet side. That meant Borg. There were sixty-four cubes in all, but they were just sitting there. As Sheppard watched, the cubes began to pair off. And then they began to dock with each other. As the two small cubes would connect, they became one sensor profile. The power output profile on the merged cubes also changed, showing that the cubes were now combining resources. Then the new 'rectangles' paired off again, and became four cubes, merged together. The four then became eight. When the cubes had combined into four cubes of eight cubes each, they combined again, and all sixty-four cubes became one. One big cube, with a power curve unlike anything Rodney or Sheppard had ever seen.

"Oh crap," was all Sheppard could manage to say.

Rodney likewise responded in his typical manner. "We're SO dead."

**Author's Note:**

_I think this is Brock's best writing yet. If you think so, too, then let him know. He checks for reviews a couple of times a day. Just like I do._


	11. Chapter 11

**Author's note:**

_This will be the last installment of my story. For those of you that have taken the time to read this story, thank you for your time and interest in my work. For those of you who have posted reviews: Carycomic, Louie Pastiche, Harry 2, please know that not only do I appreciate it, but it has also spurred me on to do my best. And of course, thank you Ordinaryguy2 for not only opening up the ability to write this, and encouraging me to write this in the first place, but also for writing a great story. Although I've done writing assignments before, this was my first attempt at writing for a public audience, so thank you for your support. So sit back and enjoy! (and yes, papa wheelie, you're right)_

_And for those of you who have already read Ordinaryguy2's story, then yes the DS9 segment WAS in his story already and was used with permission._

**Chapter 11 Who do I shoot first...**

**By Brock Joyner**

**New York City**

The scene in Times Square was madness. At first it was business as usual, but then a group of Borg drones came out of a building and began assimilating en masse. Then, if that wasn't bad enough, several thin needle-like ships began making passes over the local airspace. At first, the small ships, known as "darts" to the soldiers of Atlantis, activated their transport beams and began disgorging Wraith soldiers into the streets below. Then, they activated their beams again, this time collecting people as they ran in fear. The beams didn't discriminate, they took men, women, alien and Borg alike.

"Who's ships are these?" Kor asked in confusion.

"Based on Sheppard's briefing, I'd guess Wraith," K answered as he pulled out his weapons. Each agent of MiB was issued two weapons. Both of K's were standard sidearms, equipped with stun, kill, and vaporize settings, not to mention the modular attachments to counteract the Borg adaptability. Kor likewise held a modified MiB weapon, although this one was larger and more suited for blowing holes in the hulls of space craft. By human standards it was heavy, and would have required the user to hold it with both hands. Klingons however are much stronger than humans and Kor hefted it easily in one hand. 

**Long Island**

Once Agents C and F arrived on Long Island with the warriors from Atlantis, they knew they were in trouble. There were Borg everywhere, and civilians panicking doing Lord-knows-what. Agent F took a few of the Atlantis marines and began traffic control.

The Borg initially were heading toward the coast and presumably to Atlantis, but after Atlantis lifted off, these drones began their secondary protocol, which was to assimilate everything in sight. The sudden reversal of direction caused massive confusion and absolute chaos. The one good thing was that the Borg were coming from a single direction and therefore could be fought straight on. 

Agent C quickly redeployed the warriors under his command. He found a suitable choke point and directed his troops to various rooftops, second and third story windows, anywhere that would provide cover, and of course, the high ground.

**Madison Square Garden**

Teyla and Ronan had both heard Sheppard talk of 'The Garden'. He had often talked of the epic battles that took place here, between groups of people seeking honor and glory. Teyla thought it was ironic that it was here she would fight one of the biggest, and most important battles of her life. Ronan on the other hand, was unimpressed. Ronan thought it would have been more like the Coliseum in the "Gladiator" movie Sheppard had made him watch. Although Teyla was horrified, Ronan was almost happy when the Wraith began to beam down.

**Near Central Park**

As J and Klang arrived with their garrison, they got straight to work. Within a few minutes, they had already filled up one of the modified vans full of drones, and had a few incapacitated, awaiting the van to make a return trip.

J had half expected Klang to be as difficult as Kor was with regards to treatment of the Borg. Klang had simply told him, "Kor is my superior, worthy of my respect and allegiance; but doesn't mean he is always right."

J could respect that. What surprised J the most about Klang was the eagerness in which he took his assignment. He was like a kid looking for Easter eggs.

Klang approached the area they had established for the captive Borg, little more than an alley with a subspace blocker and an Alpha wave inducer to keep the Borg asleep, he tossed a small Borg drone into the containment area and looked at J with a toothy grin, "This is almost like hunting targ at home!"

J had no idea what a targ was, but assumed it must be something like deer on Earth. J gave him a smile of his own and replied, "Keep it up, big guy."

**MIB Headquarters**

Zed watched the battles impassively and allocated resources accordingly. Of the four major battles, the one on Long Island was going the best. It was an isolated environment, limited resources and a good number of choke points, one of which agent C was using to its utmost effectiveness. The Borg there were contained, and agent F had the presence of mind to set up his holding area on a ferry boat, so he could not only hold a larger contingent of drones, but also transport them to the mainland in a single trip.

Zed glanced over the other screens and noted the various scenes. Capturing the Borg drones seemed to have an unexpected bonus. It confused the Collective. The Borg were used to straightforward responses, comply or resist. Having drones incapacitated and isolated was something the Collective was unprepared for.

"Good," Zed thought to himself. Zed then saw something that gave him pause. Some idiot was taking time to window shop, completely unaware of the pandemonium surrounding him. Then Zed realized that the idiot was someone he RECOGNIZED...

**Times Square**

Tran r'al of the Arquillian Nobility was on his first trip to Earth by himself. He was still getting used to the giant mechanical suit he wore to more effectively blend in with Earths' native population, so to the casual observer, he looked to be drunk and possibly suffering from a neurological disorder..

He was looking at a necklace of shinny clear stones, still baffled that the humans found these common "diamonds" valuable. Just then, his audio receptors picked up a noise, a type of high-pitched squeal. As he turned around, he saw four humanoids, all with green skin and white hair. The nearest one moved toward him, and with teeth bared, slapped his hand onto Tran's chest plate.

After a moment, the being looked down at Tran's chest and then looked into his visual receptors in what Tran could only guess was surprise or confusion. Since Tran had never encountered this being before, he assumed he was involved in a greeting ritual, much like the human "handshake". Tran raised his own hand, slapped it on the strangers' chest and said, "I greet you in return. What is your name?"

K had been so busy shooting Borg and gathering them, as well as making sure Kor didn't get too lost in his bloodlust and begin taking out innocents, that he almost missed the arrival of the new Wraith near him and the failed feeding attempt on the Arquillian nobleman. After K readjusted his pistols to "Vaporize" and gunning down the new intruders, he ran up to the Arquillian, and began guiding him away from the combat area.

"This isn't the best place for you to be, kiddo," K said along the way, "Those are really bad guys. Do you remember how to get to MiB headquarters?" 

Tran responded in the affirmative.

"Good. Go there." 

K turned back to the battle to see Kor howling in joy as he was in the middle of scalping a Wraith who had had it's feeding arm completely blown off by an earlier blast by Kor's weapon. K shouted at him to stop taking trophies, but Kor couldn't hear him. That was when a Borg drone calmly walked up behind Kor and injected him. 

Kor yelped in pain, and then turned and slashed the drones' throat with his dagger, severing several wires in the process. Kor slumped to his knees. He could feel the nanites burrowing through him like fire. He could hear the voice of the Collective begin to call to him.

RESISTANCE IS FUTILE. 

Kor raised his rifle to his chest.

RESISTANCE IS FUTILE.

He tried to press the firing stud.

RESISTANCE IS FUTILE.

Sadness overwhelmed him as he realized the abomination he was about to become, and that he no longer had the motor control skills to do anything about it. He looked pleadingly at K. "Just finish it. I don't have much time, don't make me beg like a targ."

K responded by pointing one of his pistols at Kor and pulling the trigger.

**Madison Square Garden**

"Fighting the Borg is almost as tough as fighting the Wraith!" Teyla thought to herself.

At first, the battle was simple. The warriors all took turns stunning drones, and then providing cover for each other while stunned drones were recovered and put in the dampening field. Even Ronan had, reluctantly, been part of this process. But then the Wraith began dropping troops.

The Wraith immediately focused on the Borg, because the drones were the biggest percentage of the current population, and in turn, the Collective began targeting the Wraith, with Ronan cutting paths of destruction wherever he happened to go.

Once the Wraith began deploying, all bets were off in Ronan's mind. He fell on the Wraith in a savage fury. If any drones unlucky enough to be near him, well, too bad for them.

Teyla made casual observations as she fought. She saw time and time again a Wraith soldier begin feeding on a drone, the drone inject the Wraith just before it died, then the Wraith take the place of the drone it had just killed. Teyla modified her standing orders to her people, the marines, and the MiB agents, to outright kill any Wraith they saw, assimilated or otherwise. She said they would be as dangerous either way.

**MIB Headquarters**

Zed breathed a sigh of relief when he saw K's quick thinking. Telling the Arquillian royalty that one of their princes, and a good friend of his, was dead had been bad enough. Having to tell them that ANOTHER member of the royal family was killed on Earth would have been a nightmare.

Zed was no longer concerned about the Wraith as an immediate threat. They were being wiped out or assimilated almost as fast as they could be brought down, and the Borg were being held back, for the most part, and in a lot of places, even being pushed back and contained.

He had just ordered the twins to pull up a satellite image to inspect the battle in space when an audio broadcast spilled over all channels:

**"WE ARE THE BORG. LOWER YOUR SHIELDS AND DEFENSES AND PREPARE TO BE ASSIMILATED. YOUR CULTURES WILL ADAPT TO SERVICE US. RESISTANCE IS FUTILE."**

The Wraith queen howled in fury and rage. How dare these...Borg, which she was sure was only another human trick, command HER to do ANYTHING! Because she was so sure the humans were trying to deceive her, she dismissed the Borg cube as any kind of threat. She commanded her ship to move into attack position against Atlantis. 

The Collective wasted no time aboard the Wraith cruiser. Having been beamed up from the planet's surface, they waited in stasis like the others. Because, however, the Collective had already been exposed to Wraith technology, first by Atlantis personnel, then by the Wraith themselves, the Collective was ready.

Dart after dart flew into the cruiser and released its cargo of people. The concept was simple. When a person was transported out of stasis, the aftereffect was similar to being shot by a Wraith stunner. Since the Collective had already adapted to the stunner technology of the Wraith, Each drone was able to materialize without suffering the debilitating effects of the stunner. The Borg immediately began assimilating their would-be captors before they even knew what hit them.

Within minutes of the first dart returning from the surface, the general alarm began sounding. With her disgust clear, she sent for her pet scientist. The scientist was fully trembling as he explained that the alarm had been sounded from the docking bay, where it appeared there were several soldiers attempting to take the ship. Without hesitation, she killed the scientist in a fit of rage, and then immediately contacted her ships security to obliterate the threat.

**Atlantis **

John Sheppard's ears were ringing from the shear volume of the Borg transmission. Nevertheless, he shouted defiantly into the air, "THE HELL IT IS!"

A moment later John saw the shields register hits from the newly decloaked Wraith cruiser. He wanted to fire back, but he knew the Borg to be the more immediate threat. Before he could act on any of his plans however, the Borg cube neatly positioned itself between Atlantis and the Wraith cruiser, but otherwise took no action. This action settled many of the plans Sheppard had been formulating and set him on a course of action.

"Releasing dr...oh, wait a minute..." John said, as a part of the city's schematic briefly flashed overhead.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa...," Rodney said as he straightened up, "what did you do? I'm reading a massive energy surge on one of the towers!"

"Just watch," Sheppard said with a grin, "It's gonna be cool, I promise."

A few moments later an intense green beam of destructive energy shot out from the tower and struck the cube directly in the center of the square facing Atlantis.

"Got 'em!" John shouted triumphantly.

"That looked just like the beam we fired from the Ancient defense satellite we found during the siege our first year!" Rodney exclaimed. "I didn't know we had those! That is so cool!"

"Told ya." John smirked.

When the Collective first learned of Atlantis from Sergeant Johnson, Atlantis immediately became a priority to investigate and assimilate. Once the Collective found Atlantis, an immediate scan was performed. The results showed metals used in construction never previously encountered, a power source that rivaled the Collectives, and a potential archive of information that could have spanned millennia. If the Collective could have drooled, they would have. The scout ships immediately formed into a larger cube in case Atlantis chose hostilities, which, because humanity had infected it, was a likely outcome.

When the Wraith cruiser decloaked, they Collective prioritized it a low threat. Drones had already boarded it and assimilation was only a matter of time. The cube interposed itself between the two hostile ships only to prevent unnecessary damage to Atlantis. The Collective began analyzing Atlantis's attack patterns, and shield variances for opportunities to exploit...

John fired another beam into the Borg cube. This one struck near one of the corners and sliced clean through. Then Sheppard went back to waiting. Again.

"McKay!" John shouted at Rodney, "Any way you can speed up the capacitor? This thing is taking way too long."

"And how exactly would you like me to do that? Hmm? These systems are OLD and can only take so much stress. I'm Doing everything I can to keep you from blowing up the entire pylon!"

"Just...try," Sheppard said, and then activated his radio. "Raddic, please tell me you've got something on a weakness for that ship."

The reply John got was a faint, but clear, string of unknown words he assumed was Czechoslovakian. Elizabeth responded instead.

"Raddic is still trying to interpret all of the data," another, louder string of Czechoslovakian cursing filled the background, "but the only thing he can say for certain is that the ship is similar to the replicators SG-1 ran into in our Milky Way."

"Sorry, Elizabeth, I'm a little fuzzy on those reports. Musta' been daydreaming when they taught that class."

Elizabeth suppressed a quick smile. "The gist is this. The Borg don't seem to have any central...anything on that ship of theirs, and are apparently able to repair their ship almost as fast as you can damage it."

"I've noticed. I've got Rodney trying to cut down on the firing time, but he says it's too hard and he can't do it"

"Oh, that is NOT fair! That's not what I said at all!" Rodney cut in.

John smirked. "It's ok, Rodney. You can admit you're not as smart as you tell everyone you are."

Rodney shook his finger at Sheppard. "You know, one of these days, I'm accidentally going to cause a major disaster because of you."

"You already did THAT, and that was with me TRYING to talk you out of it."

Rodney smartly went back to his work. Suddenly he sat straight up again. "Raddic is detecting a HUGE spatial disturbance..."

Everyone in Stargate Operations watched, along with Rodney and Sheppard in the chair room, as a bright light appeared almost directly behind the Wraith cruiser. Once the light vanished, another ship appeared.

The alarms aboard the Wraith cruiser finally stopped. Not because the threat was over, but because the relay box that powered that system was finally destroyed by incidental fire. It was darker in the queen's throne room than normal. Power was failing all over the ship. The queen had ordered all fighters to maintain a holding pattern around the cruiser and not dock, but instead defend the ship against any and all enemies. The Collective was unable to effectively assimilate the ship due to its semi-organic nature, but that didn't stop them from assimilating the crew with its usual efficiency. The queen looked up from one of the few powered monitors she had left. She recognized the silhouette of her ships military commander.

"What is it?" She spoke harshly.

Her commander remained still.

"What do you want?" She shouted, as she turned her full attention on him. 

"Want is irrelevant," it said, walking toward her. As it crossed from shadows into light, the queen saw that it was her military commander no more. "We are the Borg. Resistance is futile. You will comply."

It was then the queen realized her ship was lost. Lost, but not defeated. She turned toward her throne to activate the self-destruct. Before she could reach it, however, she was hit by a stunner blast. She looked up into the cold, dead eyes of her former military commander as he extended a hand toward her, two small, black tubules extended from his feeding hand as he repeated, "Resistance is futile..."

**EDF Battleship Yamato**

The crew of the Yamato, or "Argo", as it had been renamed, had been on their maiden voyage to Iscandar, where they had hoped to meet Queen Starsha, an ally and holder of a cure to Earth, which had been plagued with radiation bombs from the planet Gamilon. If the Argo couldn't make the trip within one year, Earth would be irreversibly devastated and the population wiped out due to radiation poisoning. During a skirmish with a superior Gamilon fleet, the crew of the Argo had been forced to use their Faster Than Light hyperdrive to escape. When the ship settled out of the impromptu warp, navigator Mark Venture began taking readings to figure out where they were. Pilot Derek Wildstar beat him to it.

"Is that..." He was afraid to say it, of what it might mean, "Earth?"

Mark Venture confirmed it. "That IS Earth, alright. Navigation and starcharts confirm it. But it looks so...different."

Radar operator Nova chimed in. "It's beautiful."

Chief scientist Alex Sander was the next to speak. "Captain Avatar, I've confirmed navigations readings. That IS Earth. But…" he looked at his console, " I'm getting some strange readings at the quantum level."

Captain Avatar wanted to know what this meant. He had already noticed the three other spacecrafts out there, and wanted to be prepared. "Is this an effect of the warp?"

Sander nodded his head. "Sir, I believe when we made the warp without making the usual safety check, we accidentally crossed a dimensional barrier."

Captain Avatar looked thoughtful. "Can you get us back?"

Sander thought for a moment. "It will take some time, but I think I can backtrack what happened and reverse it."

"But what about those ships?" Wildstar prompted. He hadn't missed them either.

"Take no aggressive action," Captain Avatar ordered, "do not fire unless fired upon." Wildstar nodded in agreement. 

Homer Glitchman, the communications officer, spoke up. "Captain Avatar! We're receiving a communication from that city-looking ship."

Avatar nodded. "Put it on the main screen," Homer acknowledged, and a moment later, the image of a young woman appeared on screen.

"Attention, unknown vessel," the woman stated. She did so without any threat, and seemed to exude a quiet authority as well as compassion, Avatar noted. "My name is Dr. Elizabeth Weir of the Stargate Atlantis expedition. Although my people mean you no harm, you have entered a combat zone. We are currently engaged with two hostile vessels, although we may be able to render aid if you need." 

"Thank you, Dr. Weir. We will take your situation under advisement." Avatar responded, and then cut the feed. He turned to Sander, "Can you access the time radar? I want to know what's really going on."

Sander nodded and worked his console. The time radar was able to read chronometric partials and therefore tell what had happened in the scanning range within a previous period of time, hours or even days, prior. The main viewer changed and the crew witnessed the battle from the beginning, complete with the Borg transmission.

Sander added once the play had ended, "I've scanned all three ships. Dr. Weir's is completely human, the cube, or "Borg" ship is "human-iod", with alien signatures in the mix, and the third is an alien type we've never encountered. But I believe that anyone that could build a ship as impressive as Dr. Weir's might be able to help us get home."

**Atlantis**

"Elizabeth, what are you doing?" John asked after he'd shot at the Borg cube again. He'd heard her conversation with the other captain and had seen the video.

"John, they may need help. And you never know, they may be able to help us in return."

"I don't know how much help they could be; that ship of theirs looks like a battleship from World War II."

"Actually, it might be," Rodney chimed in over the comms, after tying in his laptop to the city's sensors. "Elizabeth, it's about the same size as a naval ship from that time, but it's been significantly upgraded. I'm reading MASSIVE neutrino emissions from their engine. I can also tell you that the big hole in the front of the ship runs directly toward the engine compartment. My guess is some sort of deceleration engine."

Elizabeth looked on one of Atlantis's screens at the new arrival. John was right; it DID look like a WWII battleship. It was painted blue "above" where she imagined the waterline would be if it were still at sea, and red "below". One of the technitions broke into her thoughts a moment later.

"Dr. Weir, the new arrival is hailing us." He said.

"Put it on screen."

**EDF Battle ship Yamato**

Dr. Weir appeared once again on the main viewer. Captain Avatar spoke up at once. "Dr. Weir, I apologize for my earlier gruffness, but we needed to review our situation first. My name is Avatar, captain of the Earth Defense Force battleship Argo. We are on a critical mission to save our world from certain destruction. During a fight with our enemies, the Gamilons, we were forced to make an emergency warp. This is what must have caused us to come here from our own parallel universe. We would like any assistance you could offer in the way of getting us home. I understand your current situation and the crew of the Argo stands ready to assist."

Dr. Weir seemed to think for a moment before responding. "Thank you, Captain Avatar. Any assistance in this fight would be MOST welcome. As far as getting you to your home dimension, well that's a problem we both face, but if we work together, we may be able to help each other."

Captain Avatar was about to respond, when Dr. Weirs' image suddenly distorted and a new transmission overrode all audio channels:

"**WE ARE THE BORG. STAND DOWN YOUR DEFENCES AND PREPARE FOR ASSIMILATION. RESISTANCE IS FUTILE."**

After the transmission ended, Dr. Weirs' image reappeared on the screen. The first thing the crew of the Argo heard was a faint voice, presumably over an intercom, shout, "Give it a rest, will ya!" That caused Avatar to grin, slightly.

"Dr. Weir," Captain Avatar began, "I believe we have a way to take out both of your problems, but it will require moving your ship out of the line of fire."

"It will take a few seconds to open a hyperspace window. I'll begin making preparations."

Captain Avatar nodded to her image, then turned his attention to his crew. "Prepare to fire the Wave Motion Gun."

The crew immediately snapped to their duties and began calling out their checklists as they were completed.

"Black Tiger squadron launched." Wildstar said.

"Bulkhead doors closing, check," someone else said.

"Interlocks, check."

"All personnel report in position,"

After another minute or so the checklists were completed and crew and ship were ready. The final countdown began.

"5," Wildstar counted. 

"4."

"3." The crew put on darkened goggles to protect their eyes from the intense light. Avatar looked at Dr. Weir. "Jump now."

"2."

"1." Atlantis disappeared in a flash of light.

"0." Captain Avatar gave the order, "FIRE!"

**Atlantis**

After Sheppard caused the city to make its microjump, all eyes turned to the screens. John brought up the visual and tactical display down in the chair room, and Rodney was still tied into the sensors, watching the raw data. They all heard the captain give the command to fire, but at first nothing happened. Then sensors began detecting a large amount of neutron energy being channeled near the bow of the ship, which happened to be the part Rodney thought was a deceleration engine. Sheppard would definitely use that one on him later.

Then, in a very dramatic manner, the main gun for the Argo fired. It was spectacularly bright, firing a long, intense, white beam of incredible energy at both the Wraith ship and the Borg cube. The beam enveloped both easily. When the beam dissipated after about a minute, there was nothing left of the cube, the Wraith cruiser, or any of its darts.

**Chapter 12 Epilogue**

**MiB Headquarters**

It was much like the first time we were here, Elizabeth thought to herself. They were all gathered once again in the conference room at MiB headquarters, once again making presentations and introduction to each other. But this time there were some new faces. Captain Avatar, Wildstar, Mark Venture, Sander, and Nova were all sitting around the conference room table with them.

After Zed had explained MiB's role in both the protection of Earth, and the role in recent events, it was Elizabeth's' turn. She described what Atlantis really was, the Stargate program, and their own code of ethics. 

Sheppard took over and explained the Wraith threat, along with Teyla, who also gave a brief history of her people before meeting the humans from Earth. Dr. McKay was next, and explained some of the technical aspects of Ancient technology, as well as how they came to be here in the first place. 

At Klang's turn, he explained the Borg plague, and a brief history of the Empire and Starfleet. After he had finished, Captain Avatar stood up and told all those present about his Earth's radioactive condition, how the EDF had been decimated by Gamilon forces, how a mysterious message had come to Earth by way of messenger, that said the planet Iscandar had a device that could safely remove radiation and restore Earth to its former glory in record time. The only catch was that Earth had to go to Iscandar and retrieve it, and had to do it within one Earth year or the damage to Earth and its people would be irreversible. Queen Starsha had also made available to Earth the plans for a Wave Motion Engine, the first of which was installed in the Argo. The Wave Motion Gun was something the developers on Earth had come up with while incorporating it into the refurbished ship.

After Captain Avatar was finished, Zed stood back up and reported that recovery operations of the Borg drones were going well. Atlantis had once again cloaked itself, and now held low orbit over New York. The city was able to spread the subspace dampening field over the entire city, and with its sensors, lead teams to the now incapacitated Borg and to any Wraith that may still be in the city.

Although recovery operations were proceeding well, returning the Borg drones back to normal was another story. Sander offered his services and Captain Avatar volunteered the services of their chief doctor, Dr. Sane. Zed was grateful for the offer, accepted with enthusiasm. 

John Sheppard spent some time with Derek Wildstar. The fact that they were both pilots provided a strong common ground. Sheppard flew Wildstar back to the Argo, giving him a chance to show off the puddlejumper, and then Wildstar let Sheppard fly wingman with him in a black tiger fighter. Once John was comfortable at the controls, they engaged each other in a mach dogfight. After that, Wildstar took Sheppard on a tour of the Argo, with special attention given to Wildstar's piloting position on the bridge. The two then headed back to MiB headquarters.

Sander and Rodney immediately started speaking in high-speed technobabble as soon as the two met. Rodney shared everything they knew about ZPM technology, and made all research and knowledge of the Borg available to Sander, in case they should ever cross paths with the Borg at a later point in their adventures. The two then went down and began working with Dr's Beckett and Sane on "de-assimilating" the patients. Beckett had shown himself to be a competent doctor, but felt like a first year medical student next to Sane, who, with Sander's help, provided a breakthrough treatment in helping his patients.

Zed, Dr. Weir, and Captain Avatar were taken first to Atlantis by Sheppard, who was in turn, taking Wildstar to the Argo, and given a brief, but enthralling tour by Dr. Weir. The trio was then shuttled by another marine to the Argo, where Captain Avatar was able to show off his great ship.

Right before the trio left for Earth, Captain Avatar stopped quickly by his cabin and picked up a large bottle of "spring water". The captain explained how it came from a spring near his hometown and was one of the few things he had left from before the Gamilons had obliterated it.

The three then spent most of the night drinking toasts to fallen comrades, and discussing the pressures of command that only another commander could understand.

Within a week, Sander and Rodney had a way home. Because of the unusual design of the Wave Motion Engine, it made crossing dimensional barriers easier than with the hyper drive on Atlantis. With that in mind, Atlantis would set up a power-transfer tether with the Argo, thus giving it enough power to "tow" Atlantis back to its' home dimension. The Argo would separate the tether and then continue on to its' own quantum reality.

A few adjustments in the Argo's time radar, and a few scans of Atlantis and the Argo ensured that their home universes would be relatively easy to find. The only problem was that it would take power. A LOT of power.

With that problem solved, it just left the Klingons. Klang had admitted that he wouldn't mind staying, but that duty and honor called him home. No one asked Kor, who had been among the first of the patients to undergo de-assimilation. When Kor woke up, he realized that K had only stunned him after being injected instead of granting him Final Honor of dying a warrior's death as he had asked K to do at that time. Once he tried to get up, he found he couldn't, and began calling down curses on K's head and swearing blood oaths' to make him pay for humiliating him. K's response was to promptly shoot the Klingon with a stunner and order the nurse to keep him under sedation until further notice.

The solution for the Klingons came from the MiB. A few years earlier, a group of evolved "Cro-Magnon" men called Kromagg that had come from another quantum reality to try and enslave Earth. They had been foiled, and MiB had kept the reality sliding technology. 

Klang was scanned and his quantum frequency was uploaded to the Argo's time radar. It scanned the appropriate universe and found a space station in orbit. Because of the power requirements, the dimensional transporter was sent to Atlantis, which took up orbit at the same location as the space station in the other universe.

Once the Worms had caught wind of this, they had begged, pleaded, and even offered to lick Zed's shoes clean for a year if they could go. To Zed's question of why they wanted to go so bad, the answer was instant and unanimous: "Coffee." So Zed let them tag along with J and K. If he was lucky, the worms would want to stay...

**Federation Space Station Deep Space Nine**

"Let me see if I understand you," Benjamin Sisko said. "You are filling a grievance against us?"

Once opening the portal from Atlantis, agents J and K had dropped Kor's unconscious body on the floor in front of them and asked to speak to whoever was in charge. The worms ran immediately for the bar. When the man in front of them showed up identifying himself as the station's commander, K immediately handed him the formal piece of paper.

"That is correct, sir" Agent K responded automatically. He then explained what was already on the paper in case this human couldn't read it for himself. "Your cross dimensional-portal up there on what you call a holo-deck not only allowed non-registered aliens to disembark onto our planet against standard protocols, but they were also armed, intoxicated and without human disguise."

"And," J added, not wanting to be ignored, "our fair city of New York was being terrorized by a bunch of cyber-zombies called the Borg, who give new meaning to body-snatching by the way, and who also happened to have originated from this parallel universe!" Agent J lowered his dark sunglasses to look Sisko directly in the eye. "What do you have to say about that?"

K looked at the four pips on the neck of the captain's uniform and noticed that one was brighter than the other three. Recent promotion, K thought to himself. K turned his attention back to his partner. "Easy, sport. Let _Commander_Sisko explain."

"It's Captain Sisko!" The man blurted out. Inwardly K smiled. Definitely new to his rank.

"Whatever," J said. He had seen his partner use this tactic before and played along.

Behind them another Klingon and another humanoid steadied Klang and began to pick Kor up off the floor. Kor groaned as he regained consciousness. But when he saw K, he howled in rage. He pulled his d'tag from its' sheath and charged Agent K, intent on killing him. K ducked the lethal swing and kicked back at the Klingon in the groin. Gravity and pain took control of the warrior as he dropped back to the floor.

Another type of alien, this one looking like he molded out of clay and only half-finished, promptly took the dagger from the now whimpering Kor. "I'll take that," he said. He then turned to agent J and pointed at the 'noisy cricket' he had drawn. "And that too, Agent J."

"What?" J responded, looking at the weapon in his hand. "No way, man. Or...whatever you are."

Agent K sighed. His junior partner could be so dense at times. "Kid, what did I tell you about bringing high-impact weapons aboard a space station?"

"What? This?" Agent J stated dumbly. "I didn't think you meant this," he said as he reluctantly handed it to the stations' Chief of Security.

Captain Sisko looked as though he wanted to be anywhere but there. "I will give this document to my superiors as soon as they are available. But meanwhile, can we offer you any information on the Borg to aid your people?"

Agent K shot Captain Sisko and insincere smile. "The collective entity known as the Borg have already been neutralized, and the people impressed into its' mental consciousness and physical servitude are already being repaired and returned to their regular lives."

Captain Sisko looked absolutely dumbfounded. "I thought you hailed from the twentieth century. How could you possibly have the knowledge and technology to reconvert people from their drone status?"

"Actually, we're from the beginning of the twenty-first century," Agent K said, avoiding Sisko's real questions. K had to admit, he did like this part of his job. "But due to your lack of knowledge," K stated, bringing the conversation back to point, "I feel I should tell you that if you wish to contest our complaint that the fragment of timelines that you and I fall into the jurisdiction of the ones we know of as time-lords."

"What?" Sisko said, obviously surprised. "Time-lords? Like the Doctor?"

K looked hard at Sisko. "You know the Doctor? Which one?"

Sisko looked at his chief of security. "We don't know who he is actually." Sisko explained, "He just goes by the title of 'Doctor'."

"K meant which incarnation of the Doctor," J said, sounding smug.

Sisko and his chief of security exchanged confused looks. "Incarnation? What do you mean, exactly?"

Agent K held up his hand to forestall anymore questions. "It would take too long to explain. Just tell us what the man looked like. We should be able to figure it out from that. The Doctor is nothing if not consistent. At least during each incarnation."

"Let me get you a visual," the security chief said, pulling out some kind of advanced blackberry. He tapped on it a few times, then turned it around and showed them an image.

"Ah, the fourth doctor," K said, recognizing the image, "Yes, this is more like the messes he involves himself in. You should be in good hands with him."

Agent K declined to answer anymore of Captain Sisko's questions. After the humanoid tending the bar was hauled off after serving the worms with something added to their drinks, K decided it was time to go. The four euphoric worms and the two Men in Black stepped back through the dimensional portal and left that universe for good.

Once back on Atlantis, the MiB agents, efficiently packed up their stuff and were shuttled back to the surface. K retrieved the neurolizer that Sheppard forgot he had kept, and the groups parted ways. 

When John Sheppard returned to Atlantis, he proceeded to the chair room where Rodney was already waiting for him. After a final system check, Atlantis and the Argo warped toward Atlantis's home universe. When the two vessels emerged from warp, the Argo stopped only long enough to verify that this was Atlantis's correct quantum reality, as well as to do some maintenance checks on their own systems. Within an hour, they too were gone. By then John had already plotted a course for the Pegasus galaxy and home.

**Atlantis, two weeks later**

Atlantis was finally home. Between channeling power to the Argo, and the long flight back to the Pegasus Galaxy, Atlantis was on its' last ZPM, and it was almost depleted. Back to square one, Elizabeth Weir had said.

As John Sheppard was walking toward the sparring arena for his long-overdue butt-kicking from Teyla, he passed by one of the labs and heard Rodney and Zelenka arguing. As he popped his head in, he overheard Rodney saying, "Fine, whatever, I don't care."

"Did I hear Rodney give up?" John said in mock surprise.

Zalenka responded first. "Rodney is still sulking because the MiB asked me to join, but didn't ask him."

John thought for a second. "Well black isn't really your color, Rodney."

"That isn't the point...oh, never mind." Rodney said.

John turned around and began to walk away. He didn't want to hurt Rodney's feelings by bringing up the awards given to Teyla, Ronan, and himself. John stopped. _Wait a minute_, John thought. _Of course__I want to rub it in_. John turned around and walked back to the lab.

**End**

---------

**STAR BLAZERS (1979)**

_In the late 2100s, the planet Gamilon, a world far beyond Earth's Solar System, declares war on all of Earth. The nations of Earth fight as one against the Gamilons, but one by one, Earth's fleets are defeated. When the nations of Earth refuse to surrender, Gamilon begins bombarding Earth with Planet Bombs, radioactive missiles that look like meteors, which gradually spread deadly radiation all over Earth, forcing what's left of humanity to retreat to underground cities. Queen Starsha of planet Iscandar contacts Earth and promises to provide Cosmo-DNA that can remove the radioactivity and restore Earth to beautiful life. She provides plans to an engine that will allow a brave, young group of technicians to journey more than a hundred thousand light-years to Iscandar, obtain the Cosmo-DNA, and return to Earth within one Earth year. In 2199, an old sea-going vessel is fitted with the awesome engine and launched toward Iscandar. Along the way, the intrepid crew must fight the Gamilons, who are determined to prevent the brave voyagers from saving Earth from extinction. _from Internet Movie Data Base


End file.
